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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.

Museum receives Virginia's implements of execution

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RICHMOND, Va. (CBS19 NEWS) -- Implements of execution that are no longer being used in Virginia have been conveyed to a museum.

Governor Ralph Northam announced Friday that the Virginia Museum of History and Culture in Richmond was asked to accept the oak electric chair that was used to execute people for more than a century.

“This action closes the era of state-sponsored execution in Virginia,” said Northam. “The Commonwealth asked the Museum to accept these items, as they have the curatorial expertise to appropriately manage and interpret such materials. The Commonwealth’s history of using capital punishment is an important part of history, and the museum is focused on telling Virginia’s full and true story for future generations.”

Last year, he signed legislation ending the use of the death penalty in Virginia, making the Commonwealth the first state in the South to abolish it.

According to a release, Virginia has executed more than 1,300 people in its history, which is more than any other state.

The oak electric chair was used to execute 267 people, first at the Virginia State Penitentiary in Richmond and then in the Greensville Correctional Center, where it remained after Virginia switched to lethal injection.

The museum has also received the medical gurney that was used for executing people by lethal injection as well as other implements, such as leather straps, that were used.

At the time when the death penalty was abolished in Virginia, there were two people on death row. Northam has now commuted the death sentences of Thomas Porter and Anthony Juniper.

Porter and Juniper will not be eligible for parole, good conduct allowances or earned sentence credits, or conditional release.

Source: cbs19news.com, Staff, January 15, 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
Location: Virginia, USA
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