-The Beijing News: Do you talk with prisoners before the lethal injection?-Wang Jun: Not the first time, because everyone was too nervous. But I did on November 4 [,1997], when I gave a lethal injection to Zhang Rongcai. Beforehand, I asked him if he was afraid, and he said he was not. So I asked him to assist me, as I very much wanted to know people’s sensations before they died. I remember that when I had injected about one-third of the drug, he said that he felt as if he were floating. I asked again later, and he said the sensation was quite comfortable. I then asked again and he didn’t answer, and I felt that he died very peacefully. So the majority of condemned prisoners all request and hope they can receive lethal injection.
-The Beijing News: Speaking from your personal experience, what types of psychological changes does lethal injection induce in prisoners?
-Wang Jun: I don’t particularly like to recall what takes place at the execution site. I have known a lot of condemned prisoners, especially female prisoners, who know they will soon be executed. They all sew a small cotton pad over their heart, because they don’t want their deaths to be too gruesome, with blood flowing all over. Now they don’t need to stitch on [such a pad].
