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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.

DNA tests show match to Columbus County man on death row

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Norfolk “Fuzzy” Best
Norfolk “Fuzzy” Best
Lawyers for death row inmate Norfolk “Fuzzy” Best were optimistic in 2012 when they found six boxes of evidence in the attic of the Whiteville City Hall, evidence not shared during Best’s 1993 trial for the murder of an elderly couple.

The police notes, names of alternate suspects and biological samples could prove Best’s innocence, the lawyers wrote in court filings requesting DNA tests on the newly discovered evidence.

Those test results are in and give almost incontrovertible evidence that Best stabbed to death Leslie and Gertrude Baldwin in their Whiteville home in 1991. A vaginal swab taken from Gertrude Baldwin, who was raped, contains sperm that matches Best’s DNA.

The report from Sorenson Forensics in Utah said the chance that the DNA could come from an unrelated male in the United States is 490 trillion to one.

Betsy Baldwin Marlowe, a daughter, said she was pleased when she learned of the results.

“This has been ongoing for too long,” said Marlowe, who lives in Florence, S.C. “This has been stressful for the family.”

The News & Observer wrote about Best’s case in September 2014.

The murders of the popular and well-known couple shocked the people of Columbus County, located in the rural southeast corner of the state. For 37 years, the Baldwins ran a photography studio in Whiteville, capturing the pictures of babies and brides, graduates and grandparents, farmers and bankers.

Within two weeks of the killing, police arrested Best, who had many arrests for drugs, robbery and assault and who was recently released from jail. Best, the oldest of eight children, was raised in a clapboard shack with a backyard outhouse by a single mother who sold moonshine to make ends meet.

Then-District Attorney Rex Gore painted a straightforward theory for the jury. Best worked in the Baldwins’ yard one Saturday and returned that evening to kill and rob them. Best took a wad of $100 bills and spent the next 48 hours holed up in motel rooms, drinking and smoking crack cocaine with three women.

Best testified he was innocent. But the jury convicted him and sentenced him to death.

After the U.S. Supreme Court turned down his appeal, Best continued to claim innocence. A post-conviction lawyer was appointed, but the case languished.


Source: The News & Observer, Joseph Neff, December 7, 2015
Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/crime/article48491745.html#storylink=cpy

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Location: North Carolina, USA
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