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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.

In Nevada, path unclear after twice-delayed execution

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Midazolam
Court blocks state from using never-tried combination of drugs

LAS VEGAS — Nevada twice has come close to carrying out its first execution in 12 years. And twice it failed.

Condemned killer Scott Raymond Dozier says he wants to die, but the state has no clear path forward after courts blocked it from using a never-tried combination of drugs that it created after struggling to get lethal injection supplies.

The delays are raising questions about whether Nevada can overcome legal hurdles to execute its first inmate since 2006 and whether the political will exists to find a way to carry out capital punishment at all.

States, including Nevada, have increasingly run up against pharmaceutical companies who don’t want their products used in executions, with states like Texas, Georgia and Virginia changing laws to shield information about the drugs they use and others coming up with backup methods such as gas chambers and firing squads.

In an election year, few Nevada politicians are talking about possible changes to keep the death penalty viable while the state faces a court battle that’s expected to be lengthy.

Hours before Dozier was to die July 11, a judge blocked use of the sedative midazolam until at least September after drugmaker Alvogen sued. The state was expected to appeal the postponement to the Nevada Supreme Court.

Nevada’s three-drug plan would follow the sedative with fentanyl, the potent synthetic opioid that’s fueling overdose deaths nationwide, and a muscle paralytic called cisatracurium. Neither has been used in an execution, and critics have raised concerns that Dozier could be conscious, unable to move and suffocating.

Dozier, a 47-year-old twice-convicted murderer who insists he doesn’t care if his death is painful, had his execution previously delayed in November.

Source: Altona Mirror, Ken Ritter, Michelle Price, July 20, 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: Nevada, USA
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