Singapore to review methods
By Alan Shadrake and Michael Davis
19nov05
AUSTRALIAN drug-smuggler Nguyen Tuong Van is likely to be one of the last people to face the hangman in Singapore after a review of execution methods by prison officials.
At 73, Singapore's chief hangman, Darshan Singh, has told prison officials he wants to retire, but a search for a replacement has been unsuccessful.
The Weekend Australian has learnt that officials have been studying other methods of execution and are leaning towards the lethal injection technique used in 37 of the 38 US states that practice capital punishment.
Lex Lasry, QC, and Julian McMahon left Melbourne for Singapore last night, still unsure whether their client, waiting on death row in the infamous Changi prison, was even aware that he would be hanged at dawn on December 2.
Van's distraught mother, Kim, who learned of the execution date in a cursory registered letter from the prison's superintendent on Thursday, remained in Melbourne.
Comforted by her brother, she continues to pray at the tiny altar inside the housing commission home in the city's east where she raised her twin sons after arriving in Australia as a boatperson more than 20 years ago.
She will get to see her son again only in the three days leading up to the execution, and was told in the letter that if she could not make funeral arrangements, prison officials would arrange for his cremation.
"It's no point her going over until we can organise for her to visit her son in the prison," Mr McMahon said.
Mr Lasry said: "As long as he is alive we will continue the campaign.
"At some point, the Singapore Government must realise as a First World country it can no longer continue to impose mandatory death sentences."
The review of execution methods was also prompted by technical glitches in a new execution chamber installed in Changi prison during renovations last year.
A mechanical lever that used to operate the trapdoor has been replaced with a semi-automated electric switch.
Mr Singh, a veteran of more than 850 hangings, is understood to be unhappy with the new machinery, which is prone to malfunction.
A colleague of Mr Singh, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The Australian last month that after more than 40 years, the hangman wanted to retire.
But one of two candidates picked to replace him froze and was unable to complete his first execution. A second left the prison service.
The lethal injection method being considered by Singapore officials as an alternative is modelled on the procedure introduced in 1977 in Oklahoma.
The prisoner is strapped to a gurney and an intravenous tube is inserted into each arm with a flow of harmless saline solution. At the warden's signal, 5g of sodium pentothal is administered, which renders the prisoner unconscious.
It is followed by pancuronium bromide, a muscle relaxant that paralyses the diaphragm and lungs, and finally potassium chloride, which causes cardiac arrest.
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