Power assured during dry season
Power supply will meet the anticipated surge in demand during the dry season this year, said Dang Huy Cuong, director of the Electricity Regulatory Authority of Viet Nam.
The switch from firing squad to lethal injection for carrying out death sentences will take effect November 1, the government decreed last month.
The execution chamber will have a bed to which the prisoner will be strapped and injected with the lethal drugs by an automatic machine. Prison officials will monitor the death through a heart monitor.
Three drugs will be used - sodium thiopental to anesthetize the condemned, pancuronium bromide to paralyze the nervous system and muscles, and potassium chloride to stop the heart.
The decree also states that the drugs can be injected two to three times if they do not work the first time.
The decree also spells out the process of disposing of executed prisoners’ bodies. If relatives or legal representatives ask for the bodies, they have to undertake they will comply with security, public order, and other laws.
To implement the switch, the government has ordered execution centers in 18 provinces and cities around the country to set up the execution chambers and train executioners, police Major General Cao Ngoc Oanh has been quoted as saying by Phap Luat newspaper.
It would help them set up the facilities, he added.
The switch was scheduled for July 1 after the Law on Execution of Criminal Verdicts was passed by the National Assembly last year and lawmakers looked for a "more humane" method of execution.
Le Thi Thu Ba, chairwoman of the National Assembly’s Justice Committee, said the new system had become popular around the world and was more humane since it caused less pain to prisoners and psychological pressure on executioners, and kept the body intact.
But the switch was delayed due to a shortage of facilities and human resources.
The police ministry first suggested an end to the firing squad in early 2006, saying it had led to a mental disorder in the case of one member of the firing squad while many others had quit the service, Reuters reported.
The death penalty is given for 29 different crimes including murder, armed robbery, treason, drug trafficking, sexual abuse of children, and economic crimes, such as embezzling VND500 million (US$24,000) or more of state property. But in practice, it is mostly given only for drug trafficking and murder.
Last year the National Assembly removed rape and several other offences from the list of crimes punishable by death.