Source of the article: ettoday on 2024-09-25 01:48:54 – The news is taken from major news media, and the content of the news does not represent the position of this website!
▲The lethal injection chamber in Texas.
The Associated Press reported that the United States will execute five death row inmates within a week. The abnormally high number of executions runs counter to the multi-year trend of declining support for and use of the death penalty.
In this wave of executions, South Carolina took the lead on the 20th, two prisoners from Missouri and Texas were both executed on the 24th, and Alabama and Oklahoma are also expected to execute one death row inmate each on the 26th.
The Death Penalty Information Center (DPC), a nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C., pointed out that if the last two executions go ahead as planned, it would be the first time in more than 20 years that five people have been executed in seven days in the United States since July 2003. The total number of executions would reach 1,600 since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. The organization remains neutral on whether to abolish the death penalty, but criticizes the execution methods of various states.
Experts believe that scheduling five executions in one week is indeed unusual. It may be that after the prisoners have exhausted their appeals, state courts or elected officials have set dates at about the same time. “I don’t know what else it is except coincidence,” said Eric Berger, a law professor at the University of Nebraska. He explained that many factors may cause the execution “traffic jam”, such as the inability to obtain the lethal drugs needed for injection, or the suspension of executions because the executions were too botched.
▲The electric chair was a common method of execution used in the United States in the 20th century.
On September 20, South Carolina executed Freddie Owens, who killed a supermarket clerk during a robbery in 1997. This was the state’s first execution in 13 years. On September 24, Missouri executed Marcellus Williams, who stabbed a woman in 1998, despite the defense’s lawyers’ claims that prosecutors mishandled the murder weapon and made procedural errors in selecting juries.
Also on September 24, Texas executed Travis Mullis, who killed his eldest son in March in 2008. He had a long history of mental illness and sought appeals many times. He finally admitted in February this year that “the punishment fits the crime.” Texas is the state in the United States that executes the death penalty most frequently, and Mullis is also the fourth Texas death row inmate to be executed this year.
Alabama is expected to carry out its second nitrogen death penalty in history on the 26th. In January this year, the state became the first state in the United States to use this method of execution. Alan Miller shot and killed three men in 1999. His lethal injection was delayed in 2022 because he could not find a vein. Now he will be put on a mask and forced to inhale pure nitrogen to death.
Oklahoma is also expected to execute Emmanuel Littlejohn on the 26th. He shot and killed an innocent store manager during a robbery in 1992. He claimed that although he participated in the crime, he did not fire the fatal shot. The state’s Pardon and Parole Board also voted to recommend a pardon, but Governor Kevin Stitt has not yet made a decision.