US to Execute Four Inmates This Week Amid Renewed Debate on Death Penalty
The United States is set to carry out four executions this week, marking one of the busiest periods of capital punishment activity in years. Two of the executions are scheduled for Tuesday in Florida and Missouri, with two others to follow in Mississippi and Arizona later in the week.
In Florida, Samuel Smithers, 72, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Eastern Time (2200 GMT) for the 1996 murders of Christy Cowan and Denise Roach in Tampa. The women were beaten, strangled, and dumped in a pond. Smithers, sentenced in 1999, will be the 14th person executed in Florida this year.
In Missouri, Lance Shockley, 48, is also due to be executed on Tuesday at 6 p.m. Central Time (2300 GMT) for the 2005 killing of police sergeant Carl Graham, who was investigating a car crash involving Shockley. Despite maintaining his innocence, Shockley’s appeals have been rejected by multiple courts, including the US Supreme Court, and Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe denied his clemency request on Monday.
Two more executions are slated for later in the week. In Mississippi, Charles Crawford, 59, will face lethal injection on Wednesday for the 1994 rape and murder of Kristy Ray, a 20-year-old college student. On Friday, Richard Djerf, 55, will be executed in Arizona for the 1993 murders of four members of a Phoenix family.
In a recent letter, Djerf expressed remorse and said he would not seek clemency, writing: “If I can’t find reason to spare my life, what reason would anyone else have?”
According to data, 35 executions have been carried out in the US so far this year — matching the total from 2014. Florida leads with 13 executions, followed by Texas (5), South Carolina (4), and Alabama (4).
Most executions this year have been conducted by lethal injection (29), while two were by firing squad and four by nitrogen hypoxia, a controversial new method involving nitrogen gas, condemned by UN experts as cruel and inhumane.
The death penalty remains legal in 27 US states, though California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania have moratoriums in place. President Donald Trump, a staunch supporter of capital punishment, has repeatedly called for expanding its use “for the vilest crimes.”
