The US is slated for its deadliest week on death row in 20 years, with five scheduled executions to take place in Alabama, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas.
The executions will mark the first time since July 2003 that multiple deaths are held within a span of one week, according to NBC5.
The first inmate was executed in South Carolina on Friday, and should the other four proceed as scheduled, the US will have then reached 1,600 executions since the death penalty was reinstated by the US Supreme Court in 1976.
"Two on a single day is unusual, and four on two days in the same week is also very unusual," said Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
Some speculate the factors that led to a week-long death sentence for five; however, experts say it's simply an anomaly that resulted from courts or elected officials in individual states setting dates around the same time.
"I'm not aware of any reason other than coincidence," Eric Berger, a law professor at the University of Nebraska with expertise in the death penalty and lethal injection, said to NBC5.
South Carolina executed inmate Freddie Owens on Friday for the 1997 killing of a convenience store clerk during a robbery, marking the state's first execution in 13 years due to an inability to obtain the drugs needed for lethal injections.
Alabama is preparing for the execution of Alan Miller, who was sentenced to death after being convicted of killing three men in a 1999 back-to-back workplace shooting. Miller is set to die by a process in which a mask is placed over his head that forces him to inhale pure nitrogen. Alabama became the first state ever to use nitrogen gas as an execution method in January.
On Tuesday, Texas is scheduled to execute Travis Mullis—by lethal injection—who was sentenced to death for killing his 3-year-old-month son in January 2008 amid a long battle with mental illness.
Missouri will also execute Marcellus Williams by lethal injection on Tuesday for the 1998 fatal stabbing of a woman in a St. Louis suburb; however, his attorneys argued on Monday that the state Supreme Court halt his execution over alleged procedural issues. The request was denied.
Oklahoma will execute Emmanuel Littlejohn by lethal injection on Thursday following his conviction in the 1992 shooting death of a convenience store owner during a robbery. While Littlejohn does admit to his role in the robbery, he maintains that he did not fire the fatal shot. Last month, the state's Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 to recommend Governor Kevin Stitt spare Littlejohn's life. A clemency decision has yet to be made.
