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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.

A killer’s words: Charles Lorraine writes his life story on Ohio Death Row

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Charles Lorraine soon after the 1986
slayings of Raymond and Doris Montgomery.
Ohio death row inmate Charles ''Chucky'' Lorraine called the elderly Warren couple he befriended and then murdered in 1986 ''the two nicest people you would ever want to meet.''

''But that night this happened, I was at a friend's house and they was getting high, smoking weed and drinking, and they were shooting drugs that was new to me. I never been around or saw anybody ever do that before,'' Lorraine wrote last May 15 when he reduced his life story to 17 typewritten pages.

He titled it ''Where I Went Wrong and How I Got to Where I am Today.''

Lorraine, 45, who has spent the last 25 years in prison awaiting execution, forwarded the autobiography to members of the Ohio Parole Board when he was preparing to present his case for clemency in November.

The hearing was recorded on video and viewed by Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins, who successfully argued against clemency on Dec. 13 before the execution was halted by a federal judge, who declared the state was not following its own protocol for carrying out the death penalty.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear any arguments, leaving the case in the federal appellate court, where arguments are scheduled well into the summer.


Source: Tribune Chronicle, Feb. 26, 2012
Location: Ohio, USA
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