In 2003, a night before the day of International Narcotics Prohibition, four women from a Wuhan City had come to the end of their lives for illegally trafficking drugs. With the permission of the related in-charge officers, the proceedings of the final night of the death row were captured. This article is exposed to the public with the aims of the education purpose. By knowing the real situation, I hope the public, particularly the young generations be cautious to get themselves far away from trafficking illegal drugs which is against to the humane moral principles.
A group of prisoners gathered at a special indoor room.
The prison officer and other normal-class female prisoners (those are wearing in blue clothes) were trying their final attempts to comfort the provisional sentenced female death row, He Xiuling, to who with her hand handcuffed as shown in the picture. The person, who appeared in the right corner of the picture wearing red clothes had her legs handcuffed, was identified as Ma Qingxiu. 25-year-old He Xiuling was sentenced to death for illegally trafficking 7000g of drugs, while 49-year-old Ma Qingxiu was sentenced to the death for participating in more than four times of drug trafficking activities and delivering 2300g of illegal drugs to the buyers. Both of them came from the Hubei Province.
Below was a recording of the female death row, 10 hours before they were sentenced to death.
Date: June 24, 2003
Time: 2100 hours
Venue: Detention room in Wuhan City
He Xiuling disliked a white T-shirt that the officer put on her as she thought that the white shirt made her feeling fat. Upon her request, the prison officer had permitted her to change for the black clothing.
Walking through the two small Iron Gate, there is a small courtyard, and then a row of terraced rooms with the lights on in three of them. Most of the death row was detained here while waiting their turns to sentence to death. The female prisoner in the first room was identified as Li Juhua, while the middle room was Dong Gui. At that moment, they were busy at writing the final notes to leave for their beloved one. Later, they were asked to try on some new clothes.
From a far distance, one can hear a noisy sound coming from the last room, the third room among the rooms with lights on. When approaching nearer to the room, there were a group of prisoners who were playing cards witnessing by two female police officers who were sitting on the chairs. Four to five normal-scale female prisoners wearing the blue clothes gathered in this narrow room to play cards with their companions. He Xiuling was playing cards among these five prisoners, but Ma Qingxiu just kept watching. Some of the other prisoners were watching them playing. They were all with their hands handcuffed. If with no presence of the two police officers, you might assume that this was a joyful gathering.
Throughout the entire night, He Xiuling showed no expression of either fear or anxious. However, her facial expression was a bit strange with a merge of an excitement and highly-spirited. Her facial expression was rather odd that she kept on looking at the police officers with her painless smiling. She behaved strangely like a kid talking, smiling, giggling and murmuring with her body moved backward and forward alternately. When the 10 hours passed by, she would have her life ended with a blink of eyes. Didn't she feel scared? Or, she did not scare of the death? This made me thinking a scene of a movie of Titanic, who kept on playing the musical instruments though the death might reach them not long after that. This is truly a high philosophy to face with death, I guess.
At 2225 hours, one of the prisoners with blue clothes put on suggesting He Xiuling to sing. She did sing very well with her good voice. Her singing won her a thunderous applause. One of the female police officers said, "With such a good voice, it should have earned you some money for a living, but why you get involved in such crime?" Then, a long sigh was heard. She shook her head looking at He Xiuling unbelievably and suspiciously. The room became silent for a moment. Each eye focused on He Xiuling as though seeking for her reply. He Xiuling turned her head facing the police officer with her eye sockets filling with hot tears, sighing impatiently, and then she said in a low tone, "It's too late. I was cheated by him on the cause of love. I scarified everything for him as I love him very much." She stopped for a while, crying with her face burying in her palms, then she continued to say, "I was cheated! I hate him! My life had been ruined by him! I've nothing to say but to wait for death......"
