Dead men walking - P1: judgment day
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How does the final moment arrive for convicts sentenced to death at the Ha Noi police’s detention center No. 1?
Senior Lieutenant-Colonel Bui Ngoc Binh is the supervisor of Ha Noi police’s detention center No. 1 where firing squads execute convicted criminals.
Whenever there is an execution, he is among the first to come in, at 2 AM, awaken the prisoner, and inform him or her about it.
It is always with a heavy heart that he arrives to “bid farewell,” he says.
When told they will be executed that day, most prisoners are devastated though they may have prepared for this day for long.
The prisoner will then take a bath and change into new clothes for the last time.
After the announcement that their amnesty application was rejected, the prisoners prepare for the final formalities.
They are allowed to write a letter or record a message to their family.
Binh recalls a foggy day at the end of September last year when he took two prisoners, Nguyen Van Thuan and Nguyen The Do, to the execution grounds.
Nguyen The Do looking for his relatives before being taken to his prison cell
Thuan was just around 20. He had killed an old man to rob him.
He stepped into the room shakily with the help of two police officers. When one of them gave him a pen and paper, he sat silently with trembling hands for a long time before writing a few misspelled words to his parents.
He told them not to be heart-broken and that punishment for his crime was inevitable. He asked them to take his remains to their hometown and bury him next to his grandmother.
Do had never stopped regretting what he had done and felt sorry for his two daughters. He was a drug addict. His wife had abandoned him, leaving him with their two children.
He had stabbed an old woman selling drugs to death and stolen her gold ring. He once confided that he was obsessed with his cruel crime.
In his last letter, he apologized to his mother and daughters for not being able to take care of them. He loved them very much and deeply regretted what he had done, he said, and asked for their forgiveness.
The prisoner has one last meal, a bowl of chicken pho, a glass of water, and a cigarette. Do looked at the bowl with tearful eyes.
The supervisor advised him to eat a little so that he would not be hungry in the afterlife and to become a good person in his next life.
After thanking the supervisors for their help, he accompanied them to the execution grounds.
The place was gloomy at daybreak. The criminal was led to a wooden stake. The chairman of the death penalty implementation committee read out the indictment. Five gunmen took positions.
“Attention! Raise guns, aim at the criminal! Fire!”
The execution of prisoners at detention camp No 1 usually ends before sunrise. As supervisor of detention center No. 1 of the Ha Noi police Nguyen Van Hoac said, the evil and sins should be wide out completely before the sunlight of a new day come.
Pictured is Nguyen Duc Nghia, sentenced to death for killing and cutting off his girlfriend’s head and fingers. He is awaiting clemency from the state President.
| There is change in the offing. From July 1 this year, the death penalty will be carried out by lethal injection instead of firing squad. |
