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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.

First Execution of 2015 in Texas Set for Tonight

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Arnold Prieto
A San Antonio man has the dubious distinction of being the first person set to be executed in Texas in 2015, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.

Arnold Prieto, 38, is set to die after 6 tonight for the 1993 murder of his great aunt and uncle and their 90 year old house keeper in their home on West Mistletoe Street north of downtown, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice information shows Prieto and his younger brother, who was 17 at the time, were served dinner by the victims, and then they murdered the three in the course of a penny-ante robbery attempt.

"It really, it was a completely senseless crime," Rico Valdez of the Bexar County District Attorney's office told News Radio 1200 WOAI. "They could have obtained the property without resorting to this type of violence."

As soon has they were arrested, the younger brother immediately rolled on Prieto, blaming him for everything, and, since he was a juvenile at the time, he avoided the death penalty, and was sentenced to life in prison. A third person who had been charged in the crime had charges dropped for lack of evidence.

While taxpayers have been paying for his food, housing, and lawyers for 22 years on Texas Death Row, Prieto has gained a reputation as a jailhouse poet and artist, writing about Death Row conditions and drawing pictures. [Read Arnold Prieto's Death Watch Journal on Thomas Whitaker's blog "Minutes Before Six".]

But Valdez says the bottom line remains the horrible crime he committed.

"It was so intimate, it was actually going up and stabbing people multiple times. It was elderly people who were literally defenseless."

Prosecutors said Prieto and the others were motivated by fantasies that the victim had a 'closet full of cash' in their home.

Source: News Radio 1200 WOAI, January 21, 2015

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Location: Texas, USA
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