Death penalty author open to revisions

One of the principal authors of the Death Penalty Law is open to the proposal to change the mode of execution for death convicts.

Rep. Ernesto Herrera (LAMP, Bohol) said Congress chose lethal injection when it revived the death penalty in 1994 because "it was the most humane and cost-effective."

He was reacting to the proposal of some senators, one of them Robert Barbers, to amend the law to provide for death by firing squad as another way of executing convicted drug traffickers.

Herrera recalled that when Congress reimposed capital punishment, it specifically provided for electrocution as the mode of execution.

But when authorities discovered that the old electric chair was no longer operable, lawmakers chose lethal injection, he said.

He said if Congress opts to provide for another mode of execution, it should study the possibility of giving convicts the choice of how they want to die.

He added that in the state of Florida in the United States, convicts can choose between the electric chair and lethal injection.

Seven death convicts have so far been executed through lethal injection since February 1999. --With Liberty Dones