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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.

USA | Justices Remove Block to Second Federal Execution in Two Days

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A divided U.S. Supreme Court removed a major barrier to the Justice Department carrying out its second execution in as many days, again siding with the government and against the death row inmate.

Along the party lines of the presidents who appointed them, the justices again split 5-4 in lifting a stay that was in place against Wesley Ira Purkey’s execution, set for 7 p.m. on Wednesday in Terre Haute, Ind.

Other appeals raising a variety of issues remain pending for the justices to rule on later in the day.

Daniel Lee’s execution on Tuesday was the first federal one in 17 years. It followed the same 5-4 judicial split in a contentious opinion earlier that morning that rejected a claim by Lee, Purkey, and two more prisoners that the government’s lethal injection protocol could violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

The third inmate, Dustin Lee Honken, is scheduled for execution on July 17. 

The fourth, Keith Dwayne Nelson, is scheduled for execution next month. All four men were convicted of killing children.

Purkey, who was convicted of killing a 16-year-old, argues in a pending appeal that he’s too mentally incompetent to be executed under Supreme Court precedent. 

Purkey’s priest has also appealed on his own, saying the Covid-19 pandemic’s risks put him in an untenable position, having to choose between faith and health.

The justices also have before them yet another challenge to the government’s execution protocol, the third such effort from inmates to come before the justices recently. 

Prior protocol challenges from the inmates were rejected.

The case is United States v. Purkey, U.S., No. 20A4, application to vacate the stay of execution granted 7/15/20.

Source: bloomberglaw.com, Jordan S. Rubin, July 15, 2020


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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: Terre Haute, IN, USA
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