The Last 12 Hours of Chinese Women Prisoners on Death Row

From ifeng:

The last 12 hours of female prisoners condemned to death

On the eve of the 2003 International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, the lives of four female drug dealers in the city of Wuhan were coming to an end. With the permission of the relevant departments and the subjects themselves, on 9pm on 2003 June 24th, this press photographer walked into the Wuhan No. 1 Detention Center and captured their last night spent at the detention center.

June 24th night, Wuhan No. 1 Detention Center, condemned drug trafficker Dai Donggui tries on an outfit for her to wear before her execution, purchased for her by the female police in accordance with her request.

Condemned drug dealer Dai Donggui folded her new clothes and put it neatly at the head of her bed. The new clothes were purchased by the woman police officer in accordance with her request to be her pre-execution outfit.

9:30pm, condemned drug trafficker Dai Donggui prepares to have green bean soup. The McDonald’s food on the stool that is uniformly given [to the condemned convicts] had not been eaten yet.

A female police officer feeds a lychee to condemned drug dealer Dai Donggui who will soon be escorted to the execution grounds.

10:15pm, an ordinary convict helps record condemned drug trafficker Li Juhua’s last will and testament.

10:07pm, under the watch of two female police officers, ordinary convicts play card games with condemned drug dealers He Xiuling and Ma Qingxiu.

Condemned drug trafficker He Xiuling. Throughout the entire night, He Xiuling looked a little excited and exaggerated.

Condemned drug dealer He Xiuling with prison guards and ordinary prisoners on the night before her execution, from time to time, revealing her natural lively side.

Inside a temporary cell, condemned drug dealer He Xiuling accompanied by prison guards with ordinary prisoners.

Female prisoner He Xiuling tries on her new shoes, preparing for her trip to the netherworld.

An ordinary female prisoner feeds condemned prisoner He Xiuling dumplings for a late-night snack. 25-year-old He Xiuling is from Xiantao city of Hubei province, and was sentenced to death for illegally carrying 7,000 grams of narcotics/illegal drugs.

10:40pm, condemned drug trafficker He Xiuling is singing, her voice begging the Heavens to give her another chance, to go back and change her fate.

June 25th morning 5:40am, Wuhan No. 1 Detention Center is silent. An ordinary female prisoner is bringing water to the condemned prisoner temporarily held in the interrogation room so she may wash her face.

6:00am, a female police officer and an ordinary female convict are helping condemned drug dealer Li Juhua apply bright red nail polish to her toes.

6:07am, before her execution, condemned drug trafficker Ma Qingxiu (third from right) instructs that her clothes be given to an ordinary inmate who needs clothes.

6:11am, condemned drug dealer He Xiuling is trying out her clothes before her execution. As the time of her execution drew closer and closer, He Xiuling felt the white top made her look fat, so the head of the detention center found a black top for her.

6:17am, condemned drug dealers He Xiuling and Ma Qingxiu eat their very last breakfast. Ma Qingxiu is eating shredded pork rice noodles, while He Xiuling is eating the McDonald’s food she had not eaten the night before.

6:29am, condemned drug dealer He Xiuling crying befoer her execution.

6:30am, before her execution, condemned drug dealer He Xiuling applying gel to her hair. The head of the detention center specifically brought gel for He Xiuling, for which He Xiuling gratefully smiled.

7:00am, seeing that her time has come, condemned drug dealer He Xiuling breaks into tears.

The last condemned inmate Ma Qingxiu walks out of her the prison cell. 49-year-old Ma Qingxiu is from Baokang county of Hubei province, and was sentenced to death for trafficking over 2,300 grams of illegal drugs on four occasions.

7:00am, the female police officers of Wuhan No. 1 Detention Center lined up to send off the four condemned drug dealers.

7:21am, two tall judicial police escort the last condemned drug dealer Ma Qingxiu out of the detention center.

Prison guards take off the condemned drug dealer’s handcuffs and legcuffs for the judicial police to put on new chains.

9:45am, in Hubei Wuhan, at the site of public sentencing, condemned drug trafficker He Xiuling cries. Among the twenty some condemned prisoners, she is the only prisoner to cry on the scene. She was the youngest.

Hubei Wuhan, at the public sentencing, the condemned prisoners are escorted to the execution grounds. At the front is condemned drug dealer He Xiuling.

Comments from ifeng:

凤凰网北京市网友：xiaoyuyidai

Die early and be reincarnated early. Why did you count on your luck when you were trafficking drugs back then!? Leaving this kind of person in the world is simply another piece of filth.

凤凰网浙江省杭州市网友：凤凰网友

Life is actually very simple, it’s just that zero point zero something second of time.
However, the corrupt officials that are even worse than them are even more, the harm even greater. Now they are the ones who should really be cleaned [out of society].

凤凰网北京市网友：e2d3u6p7

With drug trafficking having harmed so many people, even though it is easy to be compassionate when life is about to end, they are still unable to get my sympathy.

凤凰网广东省东莞市网友:手机用户

Abolish the death penalty.

凤凰网广东省广州市网友：一箭168 (responding to above)

Do you know how many families and children her drugs have killed?

凤凰网北京市网友：网络路人甲

When I think of those people whose lives have been ruined by drugs and would be better off dead, death is not a sufficient for the crimes of these female prisoners who have killed others for profit in their drug trafficking. Lethal injection is letting them off too easy. They should be shot ten times.

凤凰网黑龙江省鸡西市网友：昨夜星辰111444

Drug trafficking is indeed detestable, but being sentenced to death for just carrying 7000 grams of drugs… Then what about that guy on the TV news several days ago who had committed 9 major crimes? Just one of his crime should be a death sentence. Drug trafficking, raping underage girls, gun possession, organized prostitution, organized crime… which one of these is not enough for the death penalty??? But he was only sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined 650,000. The country’s laws truly are sound, or does it discriminate between people??

凤凰网新疆阿克苏地区网友：手机用户

If one could foretell the present, one wouldn’t have had the past. I hate those drug traffickers, they definitely should be seriously punished.

凤凰网福建省厦门市网友：luobo56sc

After reading through this, I feel very conflicted. If [the country] were really as Xinwen Lianbo describes it, that the people have become prosperous, who would still be willing to go traffic drugs? These drug trafficking women may have only wanted to give their own children a better life, may have only wanted to allow their own parents to live a better life in their final years. It is those corrupt officials’, those useless officials’ fault, not truly working to improve the ordinary common people’s livelihoods.

凤凰网湖北省荆州市网友：hbqw12as

Why aren’t the major corrupt official the ones to be sentenced to death?

凤凰网广东省东莞市网友：辽宁球迷

I don’t know why but after looking through these photos I cried! I’m very emotionally conflicted! After all, they are people too, but I just don’t know what to say. Another point: Nothing happens to those corrupt officials who have committed greater crimes than them. So think, if they were the relatives of high officials, would they still have been given the death sentence?

凤凰网北京市网友：lilitao

Corrupt officials should be publicly sentenced, and corrupt officials should be shot. They are the trash that is most deserving of going to hell.

凤凰网广东省广州市网友：凤凰网友

I truly have a kind of very conflicted feeling that is difficult to put in words.

凤凰网浙江省嘉兴市网友：凤凰战友

Drug traffickers buried their conscience for profit, killing many innocent ordinary common people, so getting the death penalty is their just desserts.

凤凰网陕西省咸阳市网友：手机用户

One cannot take this path no matter how poor they are. Think about it, how many people will be ruined by all those drugs? If simply posting a few photographs could get one sympathy, then is this society’s thinking too sick? Corrupt officials cannot be spared, but no matter the reason drug traffickers too cannot be forgiven.

凤凰网湖北省网友：手机用户

If corrupt officials don’t die, there will be even more people who cannot live decent lives, forcing them to commit crimes and take the path of no return! So what is the source of all these evils?

凤凰网黑龙江省齐齐哈尔市网友：yuxiaolin651127

They deserve to die, and those shameless corrupt officials deserve to die ten times more, a hundred times more, a thousand times more, ten thousand times more.

凤凰网河北省秦皇岛市网友：鲁智深2010

Definitely do not get into drugs. You will only harm others and harm yourself.

凤凰网河南省郑州市网友：fuxiwh

ifeng should publish some photos of executing corrupt officials. It should give people an even better feeling.

凤凰网江苏省苏州市网友：核和合

Next time you are reborn remember to not take the crooked/wrong path, but to walk the straight/honest path.

Comments from Mop:

易拉罐333:

Only when one is at the end of their life does one feel how precious it is.

a444186995:

How terrifying it is when one is facing death.

草泥马都被占了:

The eve of their execution and they don’t even let the male prisoners be with the female prisoners to have one last night of ecstacy.

太不人道了 ～！

Let them have sex a few times that night!

是劳工:

Strongly call for the abolition of the death penalty. Everyone has the right to life, and no one has the right to deprive others of their life.

36D大白兔:

Sentenced so harshly for such a litle amount of drugs. Fuck, the ordinary common people are screwed if they don’t have any guanxi [connections].

50_吹牛老die:

The last meal is actually shredded pork rice noodle and McDonald’s?! The Heavenly Kingdom is incredible.

帅你妈的头！:

What about their children? They are people with families, and if it weren’t to make a living, who would do these kind of dangerous things?

Look at those X second generation [rich second generation, children of the rich], which one of them is short of money? Which one of them would do these things?

Those who read this and felt nothing afterward, fenqing, X second generation, go ahead and yell at me, I’m just here to get soy sauce.

roseorgun:

Fuck, why is it that those [corrupt officials] who embezzle hundreds of millions to billions are always given suspended death sentences?

Comments from NetEase:

buhexie:

The death penalty for drug trafficking should be abolished, especially for women.

freebird_hz:

The impact of corrupt officials on society is far larger than drug dealers. Either abolish it or have them all be given death sentences!

lxm9472:

Sympathy should not be unchecked!!!!!!!!

無不想:

If I were to die,
I’d rather spend my last night by myself.
I wouldn’t want some kind of red shirt and red pants, an outfit of white would be enough.

seaskychina:

So real and such a difficult/rare thing to capture. The reporter did a tough job. The condemned prisoners were very calm. After reading I’m filled with emotion.

g13921383998:

The law must be strict, otherwise it will lose its respect, and society ultimately must have rule of law. Even though sometimes we may feel sorry for some people facing death, we cannot give them even the least bit of sympathy.

shenliqing52:

After looking through these photos, I am filled with sadness. I have never seen just what drug users are like, but when I see these women, I feel very sad for them!

Compared to corrupt officials and the scum who hurt children, these women getting the death penalty seems too harsh.

swanlake1812:

I really don’t feel that this so-called strict law enforcement has any value. Drug trafficking at the worse is just greed. It’s harm to society is much less compared to making fake food, fake medicine, embezzlement, and bribery. Beating the mouse instead of the tiger [going after the weak instead of the powerful], this is justice?

woxinyonghen:

Use the proper perspective when looking at something. Drug trafficking has caused serious harm to the country and its people. If it weren’t sold, then no one would use it. If we don’t combat crime, we cannot effectively control it. Hope that through seeing these images, people will learn a lesson, treasure their lives, and not count on luck.

leelin2000:

Post a photo of a drug user who is trapped between life and death. I bet then you all will demand that the drug dealers be given death by a thousand cuts.

What do you think? Do you feel sympathy for such condemned criminals? Or do they deserve it?