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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.

U.S. Supreme Court declines death penalty case

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The Supreme Court announced Monday that it would not hear a case challenging the constitutionality of the death penalty.

The appeal was filed on behalf of Shonda Walter, who was sentenced to death in May 2006 for murdering her next door neighbor with a hatchet and stealing his car.

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania upheld the lower court's death sentence, saying the court found the evidence sufficient to support her conviction for 1st-degree murder.

In appealing the decision to the Supreme Court, Walter asked the justices to weigh in on whether the imposition of the death penalty violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

The court did not give any statement supporting or dissenting from its decision to reject the case.

Court watchers have been expecting the justices to take up the constitutionality of the death penalty in light of a dissent by Justice Stephen Breyer last year. Experts said Breyer's dissent provided a blueprint for a broad challenge to capital punishment.

Justice Antonin Scalia, a member of the court's conservative wing, said in September that he "wouldn't be surprised" if the court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional, suggesting there are at least 4 justices who hold that view.

The court appears to be waiting for the right case to weigh in.

The case that was declined on Monday is Walter v. Pennsylvania.

Source: AP, January 25, 2016


Supreme Court Rejects Appeal to Outlaw Death Penalty

The Supreme Court is rejecting a Pennsylvania inmate's appeal to consider banning the death penalty across the United States.

The justices did not comment Monday in turning away a challenge from death row inmate Shonda Walter.

Walter's appeal plays off Justice Stephen Breyer's call in an impassioned dissent in June to re-evaluate the death penalty in light of problems involving its imposition and use.

Breyer renewed his plea last week when he was the lone justice willing to give a last-minute reprieve to an Alabama death row inmate who was later put to death.

Source: Associated Press, January 25, 2016

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