Two more inmates executed in the United States
These latest executions bring the total number in the U.S. this year to 37 — the highest annual figure since 2013, when 39 executions were recorded. Two more executions are scheduled for later this week: one in Mississippi later today and another in Arizona on Friday. In total, eight executions are planned by the end of the year.
In Florida, 72-year-old Samuel Smithers was executed for the 1996 murders of two sex workers, Kristy Cowan and Denise Roach. Both women were beaten and strangled, and their bodies were discovered on a property where Smithers had been working as a gardener.
In Missouri, 48-year-old Lance Shockley was executed Tuesday evening for the 2005 murder of police officer Carl Graham. Officer Graham had been investigating a fatal car crash linked to Shockley a year earlier when he was found shot dead outside his home. Shockley maintained his innocence until the end.
His legal defense argued that the conviction lacked irrefutable evidence and pointed out that the jury did not unanimously agree on the death sentence. However, Missouri is among the few U.S. states where the death penalty can still be imposed without a unanimous jury decision.
According to AMNA, of the 37 executions carried out in the U.S. this year, 31 were conducted by lethal injection. Four were performed using nitrogen gas asphyxiation — a highly controversial method that UN experts have labeled a form of torture. This method was first used in Alabama in 2004. Two additional executions were carried out by firing squad in South Carolina — marking the first time that method had been used in the U.S. since 2010.
Currently, 23 of the 50 U.S. states have abolished the death penalty. Another three — California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania — have imposed moratoriums on its use through gubernatorial orders.
