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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.

Judge allows Georgia execution to go forward

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A Fulton County judge rejected the challenge of a death row inmate today who raised concerns about Georgia's switch to a new lethal injection drug.

Superior Court Judge Wendy Shoob denied a motion to halt the execution of Roy Willard Blankenship, who is set to be executed Thursday for the 1978 murder of an elderly Savannah woman.

The complaint centered on Georgia's decision to swap the sedative sodium thiopental for pentobarbital as part of its 3-drug execution combination.

Shoob said Blankenship cannot meet the legal burden proving that use of the drug violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. And she noted that the drug was found constitutional by every other court to address the issue.

Blankenship's execution would be the 1st in Georgia using pentobarbital.

At a daylong hearing on Tuesday, defense attorney Brian Kammer argued that the use of pentobarbital to carry out executions would risk needless pain and suffering for Blankenship, thus violating the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. He noted that even Lundbeck Inc., pentobarbital's Danish manufacturer, has warned that using the drug to carry out the death penalty "falls outside its approved indications."

"Pentobarbital is a totally untested drug with respect to use on human patients," Kammer said, adding: "It's nothing more than experimenting on a human being."

State attorneys said the claims were unfounded, noting that the drug has been used in more than a dozen executions by states which had switched from sodium thiopental amid a supply shortage. And each time, said Georgia attorney Joseph Drolet, state and federal courts have allowed the drug to be used in lethal injections.

Blankenship has few remaining legal options left. He can appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court and federal courts, but Georgia's pardons board has already rejected his bid for clemency.

Source: Savannah Morning News, June 22, 2011
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