Shortly before the sched­uled 6 p.m. exe­cu­tion of Hung Thanh Le, a Vietnamese for­eign nation­al on Oklahoma’s death row, Governor Brad Henry grant­ed a stay of exe­cu­tion in def­er­ence to Vietnamese offi­cials who request­ed more time to review Le’s file. Le, who suf­fers from post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der result­ing from flee­ing Vietnam, was sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed despite a unan­i­mous rec­om­men­da­tion for clemen­cy from the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board. More than 1,700 mem­bers of Oklahoma City’s Vietnamese com­mu­ni­ty signed a peti­tion call­ing for clemen­cy. Governor Henry has only delayed the exe­cu­tion and set a new date of March 23. (The Oklahoman, February 27, 2004). In North Carolina, the exe­cu­tion of George Page set for Friday, Feb. 27, was also stayed in light of his chal­lenge to the lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dure used in that state. In Texas, the April exe­cu­tion of juve­nile offend­er Anzel Jones was stayed by Justice Antonin Scalia as the Supreme Court pre­pares to review the issue of the death penal­ty for those under the age of 18. See Foreign Nationals and Clemency.

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