Northeast China's Liaoning Province will abandon execution by shooting and use lethal injection instead, the province's chief justice said Saturday.

Currently execution by shooting is still carried out in six of Liaoning's 14 cities, although lethal injection was first used in the province in November 2001, according to Wang Zhenhua, president of the Liaoning Provincial Higher People's court.

Yunnan in southwest China became the first province in China to fully abandon execution by shooting in 2003.

The country's amended criminal procedure law in 1997 made executions by lethal injection a legitimate option. The first lethal injection in the country was done in Kunming on March 28, 1997.

"Lethal injection reduces the pain and fear of the condemned. It is a more humane way for them to die," said Mou Ruijin, associate professor of the Law School of Northeast University.

Officials from the Liaoning Provincial Higher People's Court said lethal injection was more acceptable for convicts and their family members.

(Xinhua News Agency February 14, 2009)