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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.

Ex-Marine Jorge Torrez formally sentenced to death by federal judge

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Jorge Torrez
A former Marine convicted last month of strangling a fellow service member at an Arlington military base was formally sentenced to death Friday in federal district court in Alexandria.

The result was no surprise. Jurors had already recommended that 25-year-old Jorge Torrez face capital punishment for the 2009 killing of 20-year-old Navy Petty Officer Amanda Jean Snell, and U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady was bound by law to impose the penalty. He did so after a minutes-long hearing, saying Torrez had committed “unconscionable crimes” and no errors had been committed to invalidate the outcome of his trial.

Torrez confirmed with the judge that he planned to appeal the case — though he did so only after sighing deeply and asking for a moment to confer with his attorneys. He declined the judge’s invitation to speak on his own behalf.

“There’s nothing I’d like to say, your honor,” he said just before O’Grady imposed the sentence.

Torrez will join six other inmates from Virginia cases on federal death row, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, which tracks death-penalty cases nationwide. Torrez’s execution, though, is far from imminent. The post-sentence legal process generally takes years, and according to the center, no federal inmate from Virginia has been put to death since 1927, which is as far back as the group’s database tracks.

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Source: The Washington Post, May 30, 2014

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