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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.

Florida Prosecutors Seeking Death Penalty Against Lois Riess

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Lois Riess
(ABC 6 News) -- Prosecutors in Florida filed a notice of their intent to seek the death penalty for Lois Riess on Monday.

In early June, Riess was indicted by a grand jury on charges of first-degree murder with a firearm, grand theft of a motor vehicle, grand theft and criminal use of personal identification information of a deceased individual, $5,000 or more.  Riess pleaded not guilty to all charges.

In court documents filed on Monday, the state outlined its reasoning for pursuing the death penalty, writing that Riess killed Pamela Hutchinson in Fort Myers Beach, Florida for "the purpose of avoiding or preventing a lawful arrest or effecting an escape from custody; that the capital felony was committed for pecuniary gain; that the capital felony was a homicide and was committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification."

According to authorities, Riess killed her husband David in late March at their home in Blooming Prairie, From there, law enforcement said she fled to Florida where she befriended Hutchinson.

Hutchinson's body was found on the bathroom floor of a hotel with a towel draped over her. The medical examiner says Hutchinson was, "shot with a small caliber round bearing similar characteristics to a .22 caliber bullet and then draped with a towel.”

Riess is also suspected of killing her husband David. According to court documents, he was killed in the bathroom of their home in Blooming Prairie with a .22 caliber handgun and a blanket was placed over his head. Authorities went as far as to say the modus operandi in both cases were “strikingly similar.” 

Riess was arrested on April 19 in South Padre Island, Texas.

Dodge County Sheriff Scott Rose said in late June that prosecutors in Minnesota were awaiting results of forensic evidence before charging her in Minnesota with her husband's death.

Source: kaaltv.com, author, July 2, 2018


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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
Location: Florida, USA
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