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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.

Execution Date Set for Texas' Oldest Death Row Inmate

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State judge sets April 21 execution date for 77-year-old prisoner

The oldest Texas death row inmate is to be executed in April for killing a Houston police officer more than 30 years ago, prosecutors said Tuesday.

A Houston state judge scheduled the execution of Carl Wayne Buntion, 77, for April 21 during a Tuesday court hearing.

Buntion had been on parole for just six weeks when he fatally shot Houston officer James Irby, 37, during a June 1990 traffic stop. 

Buntion, who had an extensive criminal record, was a passenger in the car that Irby pulled over.

"He shot a policeman in the head more than 30 years ago, and it is time that he be held accountable for his horrific crime," said Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg.

Buntion was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in 1991, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals vacated his death sentence in 2009. 

A jury in 2012 returned him to death row following a new sentencing trial.

In October, the U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal by Buntion's lawyers. 

But in a statement, Justice Stephen Breyer said that Buntion's "lengthy confinement, and the confinement of others like him, calls into question the constitutionality of the death penalty."

Source: nbcdfw.com, Staff, January 4, 2022


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but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
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