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Communist Vietnam's secret death penalty conveyor belt: How country trails only China and Iran for 'astonishing' number of executions

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Prisoners are dragged from their cells at 4am without warning to be given a lethal injection Vietnam's use of the death penalty has been thrust into the spotlight after a real estate tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to be executed in one of the biggest corruption cases in the country's history. Truong My Lan, a businesswoman who chaired a sprawling company that developed luxury apartments, hotels, offices and shopping malls, was arrested in 2022.

Texas: When is enough going to be enough?

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Following the press conference at the Capitol in Austin yesterday, 6 exonerated men from death rows in the USA speak out in support of Hank Skinner's urgent plea for DNA testing.

The exonerated Shujaa Graham (CA), Curtis McCarty (OK), Ron Keine (NM), Perry Cobb (IL), Derrick Jamison (OH) and Juan Melendez (FL) demand justice for Hank Skinner, set to be executed by the State of Texas on March 24th.

We, who collectively served 67 years on death row for crimes we did not commit, demand that Texas enforces the founding principles of justice: transparency and fairness. Hank Skinner is set to lose his life for a crime he did not commit. In spite of the availability of untested evidence collected at the crime scene, 15 years after the crime, the identity of the killer remains unresolved. Curtis McCarty, exonerated after 21 years on Oklahoma death row: "In my case, the prosecutor said: we have all the forensic evidence we need to prove guilt. He did not. 21 years later, DNA testing proved my innocence. It is the duty of all concerned to pursue the quest for the truth.

When evidence is available to be tested, it is criminal and unconstitutional not to test it. Dallas County is pursuing this avenue and exonerating prisoners, why isn't the State of Texas willing to do the right thing for Hank Skinner?" If the State is so certain of his guilt, why not order the DNA testing to confirm it? If Hank Skinner was guilty, why has he been relentlessly seeking DNA testing to prove his innocence? We are death row survivors and we owe our lives to those who fought for and with us to bring the truth to the light of day.

We stand by Hank Skinner in his quest to prove his innocence and we urge Governor Perry to do the right thing in granting him reprieve and ordering the DNA testing before another irreparable injustice occurs in Texas.

WRITE OR CALL GOVERNOR RICK PERRY

Governor Rick Perry
Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711-2428 - USA

Fax: 512-463-1849
Main number: 512-463-2000

Website email contact form: http://www.governor.state.tx.us/contact/ or use the online letter signing page set up by the Innocence Project here: https://secure2.convio.net/ip/site/Advocacy?
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Communist Vietnam's secret death penalty conveyor belt: How country trails only China and Iran for 'astonishing' number of executions

Published
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Prisoners are dragged from their cells at 4am without warning to be given a lethal injection Vietnam's use of the death penalty has been thrust into the spotlight after a real estate tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to be executed in one of the biggest corruption cases in the country's history. Truong My Lan, a businesswoman who chaired a sprawling company that developed luxury apartments, hotels, offices and shopping malls, was arrested in 2022.
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Japan | Death-row inmates' lawsuit targeting same-day notifications of executions dismissed

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The Osaka District Court on Monday dismissed a lawsuit by death row inmates that claimed same-day notifications of executions violate the Constitution — the first ruling of its kind. The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit against the government in hopes of sparking a wider discussion on the rights of death row prisoners. They also sought ¥22 million in compensation and plan to appeal to a higher court.
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Texas | State district judge recommends overturning Melissa Lucio’s death sentence

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In a rare joint statement, the district attorney and the defense agreed that prosecutors withheld evidence that could point to a Rio Grande Valley woman’s innocence in the death of her toddler. A district judge who previously presided over a woman’s capital murder case recommended last week that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturn Melissa Lucio's 2008 conviction after a district attorney’s office admitted that prosecutors withheld evidence from her defense.
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India | Efforts on to raise money to save man facing death penalty in Saudi Arabia

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THE HINDU BUREAU — Businessman and social activist Bobby Chemmanur, who has pledged to raise deliverance money to save Kozhikode native Abdul Rahim from death, continued his efforts on Thursday with a fund raising Yatra across Kerala. The Yatra reached Kochi on Thursday from Thiruvananthapuram, proceeded to Thrissur and will go on to other districts before April 16 to save the Kozhikode native, who was sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia.
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Missouri executes Brian Dorsey

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Brian Dorsey is a “rare case where those of us who sit in judgment of a man convicted of capital murder got it wrong,” according to a former judge who upheld his death sentence. Brian Dorsey's appointed trial lawyers were paid a flat fee of $12,000 to represent him. Against the advice of another lawyer, they advised Dorsey to plead guilty without a deal from prosecutors to take the death penalty off the table. 
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Why witnesses could only see part of the process when Missouri executed Brian Dorsey

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Missouri executed four people in 2023. Amber McLaughlin, Michael Tisius, Johnny Johnson and Leonard Taylor, who maintained that he was innocent, all died by lethal injection. The state is one of five in the country that carried out executions last year. Once public spectacles, state-sponsored executions have become highly secretive affairs. Especially in Missouri. Witnesses on Tuesday night watched Brian Dorsey die from a lethal dose of pentobarbital at the state prison in Bonne Terre, about an hour south of St. Louis.
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Iran | Probable Child Offender and Child Bride, Husband Executed for Drug Charges

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Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); April 15 2024: Marjan Hajizadeh and Esmail Hassaniani, a couple sentenced to death for drug-related charges in a joint case, were executed in Zanjan Central Prison.  Marjan is reported to have been 16 at the time of arrest, which IHRNGO is working to confirm. If verified, she will be the first child offender executed for drug charges since 2014. She was also a child bride forced into marriage.
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U.S. Supreme Court to hear Arizona death penalty case that could redefine historic precedent

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The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments centering on an Arizona death row prisoner that could set new precedent to determining ineffective assistance of counsel.  A Mohave County Superior Court jury convicted Danny Lee Jones for the 1992 murders of Robert Weaver and his daughter Tisha, as well as the attempted murder of Weaver’s grandmother. A judge sentenced Jones to death for the two murders.
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Ending death penalty in Taiwan

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The Constitutional Court announced that it is to hear a case on the constitutionality of the death penalty and has scheduled oral arguments on April 23, attracting widespread attention. However, instead of delving into the core debate of whether the death penalty contravenes the Constitution, legislators across party lines and the media have been preoccupied by arguing whether the grand justices should or should not make a ruling.
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