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Death row inmates in five states, not including Florida, are scheduled to be put to death in the coming week defying a decline in both the use and support of the death penalty in the U.S.
Executions are planned in Alabama, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas.
If they are carried out, it will mark the first time in more than 20 years that five were held in seven days, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.
The first of the five death row inmates was executed Friday in South Carolina.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the death warrant for Loran Cole, 57, who was the first to be executed this year by lethal injection on Aug. 28 at Florida State Prison.
If the latest spate of executions occurs, the United States will have reached 1,600 executions since the death penalty was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976 said Robin Maher, the center’s executive director.
“Two on a single day is unusual, and four on two days in the same week is also very unusual,” Maher said.
All but one of the executions will be via lethal injection however, Alabama is set to execute Alan Miller by placing a mask over his head that forces the inmate to inhale pure nitrogen.