Four executions are scheduled in the US this week as Donald Trump pushes to revive the death penalty, despite concerns about the execution method being used by states, reports the Guardian US.
The states where the executions are scheduled – Alabama, Florida, South Carolina and Oklahoma – have a previous history of botching executions, including of people subject to racial bias during proceedings, and those who have been wrongly convicted.
If the four executions go ahead, as well as another two scheduled for June, there will be a total of 25 executions in the US in the first six months of 2025, the same number as for the whole of 2024.
“The death penalty remains unpopular and practiced by a very small number of states,” Reprieve US deputy director Matt Wells told the Guardian. “In those states, you see an increased willingness to do whatever it takes to carry our executions. The result is we’re more likely to see executions go wrong.”