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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.

Alabama death row inmate Robert Melson granted stay of execution by federal appeals court

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Robert Melson
Robert Melson
A federal appeals court granted a stay of execution Friday for Robert Melson, who was scheduled to be put to death Thursday for the shootings of three fast food employees at a Popeye's in Etowah County in 1994. 

Melson is challenging his execution on grounds that the three-drug cocktail Alabama uses for lethal injections "has failed to work properly."

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals issued the stay so it can rule on Melson's challenge, which is also being appealed by four other death row inmates.

"To enable us to process these consolidated appeals in an orderly fashion, we grant Melson's application for a stay," the court said in its ruling. "His execution is accordingly stayed pending our resolution of these appeals."

Melson's attorney, John Palombi, said in a statement sent to AL.com that he was "pleased with the ruling.

"This allows the court to take time deciding the important issues surrounding Alabama's execution protocol, particularly whether the present protocol violates the Constitution," he said.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall's office could not immediately be reached for comment.

Melson has been on death row since May 1996. He was convicted along with Cuhuatemoc Peraita in the shooting deaths of fast-food employees Tamika Collins, 18, Nathaniel Baker, 17, and Darrell Collier, 23, during a robbery of a Gadsden's Popeye's restaurant. 

A fourth person, Bryant Archer, was shot four times but survived; Archer identified Melson as the shooter in the incident.

Source: al.com, Howard Koplowitz, June 2, 2017

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