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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.

13 percent of Texas death row inmates wait 25 years or more for execution

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Raymond Riles
Raymond Riles, on Texas death row since February 1976
For some Texas death row inmates, being condemned can feel like a life sentence.

Roughly 13 percent (30 of 238) of the inmates awaiting execution in the Lone Star State have been on death row for 25 years or more.

That length of stay is nearly a decade above the national average time awaiting execution of 15 years and nine months.

The longest resident of death row in Texas, Raymond Riles, has been sitting in solitary confinement (except for doctor visits and court appearances) since February 1976.

Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976, 41 inmates on death row have died either of natural causes or suicide while awaiting execution.

This is in a state that has executed 23 people in the last three years and isn't shy about carrying out death sentences.

But, the state is also suing the federal government to get a hold of a shipment of the lethal injection drug sodium thiopental.

While that is tied up in court, there's little the state can do if it runs out of the current supply of the sedative, prolonging the time on death row for the inmates and the wait for the victim's families.


Source: Houston Chronicle, Brett Barrouquere, May 3, 2017

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