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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.

Kansas Supreme Court affirms Carr brothers’ death sentences

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The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the death sentences of Reginald and Jonathan Carr, brothers from Wichita who were sentenced for a series of crimes in December 2000.

The Carr brothers murdered 5 people and robbed and kidnapped another in a series of 3 crimes, culminating in a quadruple murder of 4 people in east Wichita. 

One person who was shot in that incident survived.

Each brother was found guilty of multiple offenses, including multiple counts of capital murder. After a separate sentencing proceeding, the jury sentenced the brothers to death.

The Carr brothers appealed to the Kansas Supreme Court, which issued its opinion affirming one capital murder conviction for each brother, among other lesser convictions. 

The Court, however, vacated the death sentence in each case, concluding that the Carrs’ Eighth Amendment rights to individualized sentencing were violated in Sedgwick County District Court.

The State sought and was granted a writ of certiorari by the United States Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the joint sentencing proceeding neither implicated the Carrs’ Eighth Amendment rights nor violated their rights under the due process clause. 

As a result, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Kansas Supreme Court’s decision and remanded the case to the Kansas court to address the appeal considering the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision.

On remand, the Kansas Supreme Court reviewed more than 20 penalty phase issues the U.S. Supreme Court had not addressed, including 2 supplemental state constitutional issues raised after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision.

The Kansas Supreme Court rejected both challenges raised under the Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights. The court held that capital punishment does not infringe on the inalienable right to life protected by Section 1.

Source: KWCH news, Staff, January 21, 2022


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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
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