[NYTr] A Kinder, Gentler Death Penalty in Japan?

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Reuters - Oct 24, 2007
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUST10116320071024

Japan minister mulls "tranquil" executions

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama said on
Wednesday he wanted to consider more 'tranquil' methods of execution.

Japan generally executes several convicts a year, always by hanging.

"I am fully aware that 'death by hanging' is written in the criminal
code," Hatoyama said after a parliamentary committee meeting, Kyodo news
agency said.

"A square part of the floor opens up and they fall with a thud," he
said. "I honestly wonder if there isn't a more tranquil way of doing
this," Kyodo quoted him as adding.

It was not clear what other methods he was considering.

Lethal injection has hit problems in the United States, where the
Supreme Court is set to rule on whether administering the commonly used
three-chemical cocktail violates the constitutional ban on cruel and
unusual punishment.

All but one of the 38 U.S. states with the death penalty and the federal
government use lethal injection, which has come under scrutiny after
botched executions in California and Florida in which the condemned took
over 30 minutes to die.

Electrocution was introduced in New York in 1888 as a more humane method
of execution than hanging, but there have been instances of inmates
catching fire, multiple jolts being needed to kill and bones being
broken by convulsing limbs.

Hatoyama came under fire in September for suggesting those sentenced to
death should be executed automatically, without having the penalty
approved by the justice minister as is current practice.

He said on Wednesday he would like to hear the opinions of those opposed
to the death penalty. Opinion polls show most Japanese back capital
punishment.

) Reuters 2006. All rights reserved.