Five American states executed five death row inmates within one week, in an event the country had not witnessed in twenty years.
The Associated Press said that the simultaneous executions come in “a trend opposite to what has been happening over many years that have witnessed a decline in the use and support of media punishment in the United States.”
The first execution was in South Carolina, on Friday, before two other executions were announced in Missouri and Texas, on Tuesday, before another convict was executed in Oklahoma, on Thursday.
When the state of Alabama used nitrogen gas to execute another prisoner later Thursday, it was the first time five people had been executed within seven days since July 2003, according to the non-profit Death Penalties Information Center.
The center’s executive director, Robin Marr, told the Associated Press that the United States has carried out 1,600 executions since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
The agency quoted experts that carrying out executions in one week is an “anomaly” resulting from the court or elected officials in the states setting dates at the same time, after prisoners have exhausted their appeals.
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2024-10-01 04:10:32