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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.

Sotomayor’s first vote on death penalty

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The newest Justice, Sonia Sotomayor, on Monday night cast her first vote in a death penalty case, joining three other members of the Supreme Court in dissent as the Court permitted the execution Tuesday of an Ohio inmate, Jason Getsy, 33.

He was scheduled to die in Lucasville, Ohio, at 10 a.m. Tuesday.

Sotomayor would have granted a stay of execution, along with Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and John Paul Stevens.

Sotomayor’s predecessor, retired Justice David H. Souter, frequently voted to postpone executions.

In the Court’s order, the Justices also denied Getsy’s petition for review, in Getsy v. Strickland (09-5935).

There was no indication of dissent from the denial of review of the case itself.

The Ohio Parole Board, by a vote of 5-2, recommended to Gov. Ted Strickland that he commute Getsy’s death sentence to life in prison.

The governor, however, refused, saying that the evidence of Getsy’s crime was too strong to warrant clemency.

Getsy was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of a Hubbard, Ohio, woman, Ann Sarafino.

He also was convicted of the attempted murder of her son Charles.

Source: scotusblog, August 18, 2009
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