Last hours on China's death row

Last meal: A death row convict gets ready to eat a bowl of green bean soup, McDonalds fries,burger and an ice cream. Photo: iFeng/Daily Mail

The state-sanctioned death penalty in China is swift and brutal - a bullet to the back of the head.

China is notoriously secretive about the actual number of executions.

But pictures have emerged which, for the first time, reveal some aspects of what happens in a prisoner's last hours of life.

A civilian photographer was allowed into a Chinese jail on June 24, 2003, and took a series of pictures documenting the lives of four convicted drug traffickers, Ma Qingxiu, Li Juhua, Dai Donggui and He Xiuling.

The photographer stayed with them from 9pm until 7.21am the next morning - the day of their execution.

The pictures show the women choosing the clothes in which they will be executed, laughing and talking with guards.

Counting down: Two convicts, both sentenced to die, play cards with other inmates and joke around. Photo: iFeng/Daily Mail

Some are more animated than others as they eat a final meal, hand over clothes for other inmates to wear and prepare for their final journey - walking shackled and in handcuffs into a concrete yard.

The pictures have remained secret until last week when they were published by Hong Kong broadcaster Phoenix TV.

The final pictures show the women walking into the execution ground.

One is held by a guard and is crying as she walks into the concrete yard.

Final walk: A convict is paraded before other prisoners supposedly as an example moments before she is shot dead. Photo: iFeng/Daily Mail