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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 | Prosecutors file brief asking Supreme Court to reinstate death penalty for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

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Federal prosecutors have filed a brief asking the United States Supreme Court to review an appellate panel’s ruling to toss out the death sentence given to Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

In July, a 3-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new penalty-phase trial on whether the 27-year-old Tsarnaev should be executed for the attack that killed three people and wounded more than 260 others.

US Attorney Andrew E. Lelling, whose office is based in Boston, wants the Supreme Court to hear issues surrounding the reversal of the death penalty.

Lelling said he believes the Supreme Court will decide whether or not to hear the case by the end of 2020.

Lelling added that he hopes Tsarnaev’s original death penalty will be reinstated so a penalty phase in trial court is not needed.


Tsarnaev was convicted on 30 charges, including conspiracy and use of a weapon of mass destruction. The 1st Circuit upheld all but a few of the convictions.

Tsarnaev’s lawyers pushed several times to move the trial out of the city where the bombs exploded, arguing the intense media scrutiny and number of people touched by the attack in Boston would taint the jury pool. 

U.S. District Judge George O’Toole refused, saying he believed a fair and impartial jury could be found in the city.

The 1st Circuit said the “pervasive” media coverage featuring “bone-chilling still shots and videos” of the bombing and dayslong manhunt required the judge to run a jury selection process “sufficient to identify prejudice.” But O’Toole fell short, the judges found.

Source: WHDH news, Staff, October 7, 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: Boston, MA, USA
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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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