Vietnam: Lethal injections to replace guns in November

Vietnam will officially carry out lethal injections from November this year to replace firing squads in the implementation of death penalties, according to a new government decree.

According to the decree, issued for the implementation of the Law on Execution of Criminal Judgments and signed by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on September 16, local provincial authorities must build lethal injection facilities.

The Ministry of Health will be responsible for supplying the chemicals used in lethal injections, including the barbiturate anesthetic Sodium thiopental, muscle relaxant Pancuronium bromide and Potassium chloride – the three chemicals most common in lethal injection combination used by many countries.

Each dose comprises of 5 grams of sodium thiopental, 100 milligrams of pancuronium bromide and 100 grams of potassium chloride. Two extra doses are required at each execution as spare chemicals.

The decree stipulates “strictly prohibited acts” during execution, including replacing or changing the volume of chemicals for lethal injections, causing public nuisance at the execution facility and opposing the progress of the execution.

During execution of death penalties, the execution council must ensure the criminal is unconscious under the impact of anesthetic; otherwise more anesthetic will be injected before continuing with the other 2 chemicals.

The extra dose will be used if the criminal is still alive – through checking the heart rate – ten minutes after the first doses.

The health ministry is responsible for instructing public hospitals to assign doctors to identify the vein for the intravenous injection and receiving and storing the body in the case that such action is requested by the execution council.

Cao Ngoc Oanh, a senior official at the Ministry of Public Security, said that the costs for establishing teams of executioners in provinces and districts aren’t a big problem, because there aren’t many death sentences in Vietnam, around 100 cases per year, he said.

Executed criminals have historically been buried in a separate graveyard. However, the Law on Execution of Criminal Judgments taking effect on July 1 allows the executed person’s family to retrieve his or her body, except in cases that concern public and national security.

In 2009, Vietnam removed rape and several other offences from the list of crimes punishable by death.

In addition to rape, National Assembly deputies have voted to remove six other offences from the list, including awarding of bribes, counterfeiting of money and bonds, hijacking ships and planes, vandalism of weapons and military equipment, and appropriation of property through swindling.

Vietnam had reduced the number of death penalty crimes in 1999 to 22 crimes.

Before the Law on Execution of Criminal Judgment takes effect, all death sentences in Vietnam, mostly handed out for murder and drug trafficking offenses, will be carried out by a firing squad.

In 2009, there were at least 83 death sentences handed down and nine executions, according to Vietnamese media reports. Vietnamese authorities do not issue death penalty statistics.

In a scandalous murder case last year, the Supreme People’s Court in Hanoi in November last year upheld a death sentence against 26-year-old Nguyen Duc Nghia, who pled guilty to beheading and robbing his ex-girlfriend in July.

The case grabbed headlines when Nghia was found guilty of stabbing his ex-girlfriend to death and chopping off her head and fingers before wrapping her torso in a blanket and stashing it on the building’s rooftop.

Alongside the replacement of firing squads with the lethal injection, which is said to be more humane by many lawmakers, Vietnam has granted amnesty to more than 10,000 inmates this year.

Last year, Vietnam released more than 17,000 inmates for National Day amnesty.

Source: Thanh Nien News, Sept. 24, 2011

Comments

Texas: The inmates who refused to die quietly and had to be gassed out of their cells before execution

Former crime reporter Michelle Lyons, who witnessed nearly 300 executions in Texas, US, reveals the desperate acts of death row prisoners who refused to accept their fate After spending years or often decades locked up in a tiny cell for 23 hours a day, most Death Row inmates go willingly to their executions. However, some refuse to die quietly - with officers forced to gas them out of cells, strap up their heads and even give chase across prison grounds. Michelle Lyons, who has witnessed nearly 300 executions in Texas, US, exclusively tells Sun Online how certain inmates "fight like hell" in their last moments. On most occasions, Michelle watched from the witness area, with the killers already on the gurney - the stretcher where they'd be given a lethal injection. Seven prisoners once tried to escape from the Row in Huntsville - with one shoving magazines and newspapers under his clothes to help him roll over razor-wire fences. Others have had to b...

Idaho | Death row prisoners sue over state's new firing squad

BOISE (Idaho Statesman) – Days after Idaho made the switch to a firing squad for executions, two Idaho death row prisoners next in line to be put to death sued the state prison system, saying its director withheld information about how she settled on the specifics for carrying out the method. Attorneys for prisoners Thomas Creech and Gerald Pizzuto filed suit this week in state district court against Idaho Department of Correction Director Bree Derrick. In the filing, they called her approval of an updated standard operating procedure for the firing squad and lethal injection as a backup method “arbitrary, capricious, or an abuse of discretion and in excess of the statutory authority of the agency.”

Japan: Capital punishment for a minor

Death chamber at Tokyo Detention Center The Supreme Court's recent decision to uphold the death sentence given in a lay judge trial to a 24-year-old man for murders he committed when he was a minor raises questions about the lay judge trial system and capital punishment. These include whether the lay judges correctly understood the spirit of the Juvenile Law in sentencing the defendant to death. It was the 1st death sentence handed down on a minor in a lay judge trial. The murders took place in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, in 2010 when Yutaro Chiba was 18 - meaning he fell under the purview of the Juvenile Law. Chiba was convicted of entering his ex-girlfriend's house and stabbing to death the girl's sister and a female friend of the girl with a butcher knife, seriously injuring a male friend of the sister and abducting the girl. Prosecutors said Chiba killed the victims because they were trying to separate him and his former girlfriend. Since Chiba pleaded n...

Saudi Arabia: Man beheaded for murder

April 27, 2010: Saudi authorities executed a man by beheading after he was sentenced to death for murder, the interior ministry announced. Saudi national Umair al-Shihri was put to death in the southern city of Bisha for shooting to death another Saudi, Muzakkir al Shahrani, with a machine gun, according to the announcement carried by the state news agency SPA. No details were given about the date or location of the crime, but the ministry said the execution had been put on hold until the victim's children came of age. Source: Agence France Presse, April 27, 2010

Florida death row inmate wants DeSantis to attend his pending execution

Dennis Michael Sochor is scheduled to be put to death Tuesday, the 29th person executed by the state in the past 19 months. Dennis Michael Sochor, convicted of strangling an 18-year-old woman he met at a New Year’s celebration in a Broward County bar 44 years ago, is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday at Florida State Prison. His last wish? To have Gov. Ron DeSantis personally observe his execution up close and personal.

Oldest inmate set to be executed in Florida will face strict spending limit for final meal

An entire category of food is also off-limits for final meal requests in Florida Florida is currently preparing to execute its oldest inmate later today (July 14), a 74-year-old convicted murderer who has been on death row since the 1980s—but his final meal will be limited by a strict budget. Dennis Sochor is scheduled to be put to death later today, making history as the oldest inmate to ever be executed in the state. The criminal, who has been on death row for nearly 40 years, will be administered the lethal three-drug injection, with the process due to begin at around 6pm.

Florida | Former prison warden who oversaw executions urges corrections workers to not participate in them

Recently Florida carried out the execution of Dusty Spencer , a 74-year-old Marine veteran, for the murder of his wife, Karen, in 1992. It was the ninth Florida execution this year. For their own sake, I urge Florida’s corrections workers to refuse to carry out another one. Before you dismiss me as some soft lefty, you should know that I am an Air Force veteran. I voted for Ron DeSantis for governor twice—and for Donald Trump for president three times.

Florida | Double-murderer set for execution, sparking intense legal battle over age, declining health

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant for the Pasco County execution of Dominick Occhicone, scheduled for July 28. Defense attorneys argue the 80-year-old double-murderer is too old and frail to be executed under the 8th Amendment. HOLIDAY, Fla. - Dominick Occhicone is scheduled to face execution on July 28 for the 1986 cold-blooded murders of his ex-girlfriend's parents in Pasco County, sparking an intense legal battle over his advanced age and failing health. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant for Dominick Occhicone, who has spent nearly 40 years on death row, according to state records. The man is about to turn 81 and was convicted of killing Raymond and Martha Artzner at their home in Holiday. The warrant comes shortly after the state executed 74-year-old Dusty Ray Spencer last week. If the scheduled July 14 execution of 74-year-old Dennis Sochor proceeds, he will surpass Spencer as the oldest inmate executed in Florida since 1976. Court records show that Occhicone wen...

Germany | Neuschwanstein killer contests extradition over death penalty fears

Three years after the rape and murder of a US tourist near Neuschwanstein Castle, the convicted man, also from the United States, is contesting his extradition from Germany. The 33-year-old pushed two young women down a slope of around 50 metres during a visit to the world-famous castle. A 21-year-old later died in hospital and her friend was injured. The man raped and strangled the 21-year-old before pushing her over the edge. Kempten Regional Court sentenced him to life in prison for murder, attempted murder and rape resulting in death. The foreigners' office in the area then issued a deportation order against the convicted murderer.

Former Florida cop to be executed on same day as 80-year-old Pasco man

In an unprecedented move in the modern history of capital punishment, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday cleared the way for 2 executions to occur on the same day. DeSantis reset the execution of James Duckett, whose execution earlier this year was stayed amid efforts to secure DNA testing and analysis of evidence in his case. Duckett’s execution was reset for July 28. That is the same day previously set for the execution of Dominick Occhicone. Court records indicate that Duckett’s execution is scheduled for noon. Occhicone’s is set to follow at 6 p.m.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog