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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.

Shortage of execution drug leaves Mississippi looking for replacement

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Just weeks before Mississippi had back-to-back executions for the 1st time in nearly 50 years, officials were scrambling to find enough sodium thiopental to carry out the sentences.

The executions were carried out as scheduled, but the difficulty in finding sodium thiopental shows Mississippi is not immune from a nationwide shortage of the drug.

State Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said last week the state is looking for a replacement for sodium thiopental, 1 of 3 drugs used in Mississippi's executions.

"We don't have a choice. We're wearing out our options," Epps said.

Hospira Inc., the only U.S. supplier of sodium thiopental, stopped producing it in 2009.

The company recently announced that it won't resume production.

Epps and the Mississippi attorney general's office said last week that state officials are looking for a different drug for executions, but using a new drug creates the potential for a wave of legal challenges to the state's method of execution.

Source: Sun Herald, January 31, 2011
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