1.   But Mandy Welch of Houston, director of the Texas Resource Center, a federally funded organization that recruits attorneys to represent condemned convicts, criticized the bill.

2.   Even though the parole board makes only a recommendation to the governor on clemency, its suggestion can mean life or death to a condemned convict.

3.   The change is intended to stifle criticism from international human rights groups which have accused Thailand of brutality for shooting its condemned convicts.

4.   Earlier, the Senate and House of Representatives approved separate bills allowing the government to use lethal injection to execute condemned convicts.