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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.

Missouri Supreme Court denies request for stay of execution

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Marcellus Williams
Marcellus Williams
The Missouri Supreme Court will not stop next week's scheduled execution of Marcellus Williams, it said Tuesday.

The court said it will not review the new evidence that Marcellus Williams' attorney submitted Monday, but gave no explanation why. 

Kent Gipson had argued that said a new test proved Williams' DNA was not found on the knife that was used in the 1998 killing of former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Felicia Gayle in University City.

Gipson said he plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and will ask Gov. Eric Greitens to intervene, too. He also said he was surprised with the speed in which the high court denied the stay.

"Certainly something involving a claim of innocence that is this substantial, you would think they would at least write an opinion or at least a short opinion giving the reasons why they denied it, because that makes it more difficult to take it up to a higher court because they don't know exactly on what basis the ruling was made," Gipson said.

Attorney General Josh Hawley's spokeswoman told The Associated Press that his office was confident Williams is guilty based on other evidence.

Gov. Eric Greitens spokesman Parker Briden said in a statement that the governor is "in the process of reviewing the case with our legal team."

Williams' 1st execution was postponed in January 2015. The 48-year-old is scheduled to be executed on Aug. 22.

Department of Corrections spokesman David Owen recently said in an email that the agency is "prepared to carry out the ... execution in accordance to the lethal injection protocol established in 2013." The state uses one drug, the sedative pentobarbital, in executions, and has refused to disclose the supplier.

Source: stlpublicradio.org, August 16, 2017

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