Four men are set to be executed in four states over the course of four days in the United States next week, according to Newsweek.
The men—Anthony Wainwright in Florida, Gregory Hunt in
Alabama, Stephen Stanko in South Carolina, and John Hanson in Oklahoma—are
scheduled to be put to death between June 10 and June 13.
The Context
Nineteen men have been executed in the U.S. so far this year.
Most have been put to death via lethal injection, but Alabama and Louisiana have
carried out executions using nitrogen gas and South Carolina has executed two
men by firing squad.
Another 11 have been scheduled for the rest of the year in
eight states, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, including
Wainright, Hunt, Stanko, and Hanson.
It comes after President Donald Trump signed a sweeping executive order after returning to office in January to help preserve capital punishment in states that have struggled to maintain supplies of lethal injection drugs.
Anthony Wainwright
Wainwright, 54, is scheduled for execution by lethal
injection at 6 p.m. on June 10.
He was convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering Carmen
Gayheart in 1994. According to court records, Wainwright and another man,
Richard Hamilton, abducted Gayheart from a grocery store parking lot in Lake
City, Florida, after escaping a minimum-custody prison in North Carolina.
Wainwright admitted he had kidnapped and raped Gayheart but said Hamilton, who
died on death row in 2023, was the one who killed her.
Appeals have been filed over the years concerning attorney
misconduct, criticism of DNA evidence found at the scene and a letter from
Hamilton claiming he was the one who shot Gayheart, but all were denied,
according to The Florida Times-Union.
Gregory Hunt
Hunt is scheduled to be executed by nitrogen gas on June 10
for the 1988 beating death of Karen Lane. Prosecutors said Hunt broke into
Lane's apartment and killed her.
Alabama last year became the first state to carry out an
execution using nitrogen gas amid difficulties obtaining lethal injection
drugs. If Hunt's execution goes ahead, it will be the state's fifth execution
using the method.
The method involves placing a respirator gas mask over the
inmate's face so that they breathe
pure nitrogen gas, are deprived of oxygen and die.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has defended the
method as "humane and effective," but some witnesses to nitrogen
hypoxia executions have described
"violent writhing" and other signs of suffering and
distress.
Hanson, 61, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection in
Oklahoma on June 12.
He was sentenced to death in Tulsa County, Oklahoma, after
being convicted of carjacking, kidnapping and killing Mary Bowles after he and
an accomplice, Victor Miller, kidnapped the woman from a Tulsa shopping mall in
1999.
Prosecutors allege they drove Bowles to a gravel pit near
Owasso, where Miller shot and killed the property owner, Jerald Thurman.
According to prosecutors, they drove Bowles a short distance away, where Hanson
shot and killed Bowles. Miller received a sentence of life imprisonment without
the possibility of parole for his role in the crimes.
Hanson had been serving a life sentence in a federal prison
in Louisiana for several federal convictions that predate his state death
sentence. But he was transferred to Oklahoma custody in March by federal
officials acting on President Donald Trump's sweeping executive order to more
actively support the death penalty. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentler Drummond
and his predecessor have sought Hanson's transfer during former president Joe Biden's administration,
but the U.S. Bureau of Prisons had denied it.
Oklahoma's Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 to reject
clemency for Hanson last month.
Stephen Stanko
Stanko, 57, is scheduled for execution in South Carolina on
June 13.
He is being executed for killing his 74-year-old friend
Henry Turner. Stanko went to Turner's home in April 2006 after lying about his
father dying and then shot Turner twice while using a pillow as a silencer,
authorities said.
He is also on death row for killing his girlfriend in her
home. He raped the woman's teenage daughter before slashing her throat. She
survived and testified against him at one of his trials. Stanko admitted to the
killings. His attorneys argue that he was either not guilty by reason of
insanity or that he shouldn't get the death penalty because of his mental
illness.
Stanko on Friday chose to die by lethal injection. His
lawyers said he was troubled by the apparently lingering death of the last
person to die by firing squad in the state. He had a choice between the firing
squad, lethal injection or the electric chair.
What People Are Saying
Matt Wells, deputy director of Reprieve US, said in a
statement to Newsweek: "The message being sent from the top is
clear: President Trump wants to see more people being executed, and with most
federal death sentences commuted, in the short-term at least that means more
executions at the state level.
"States are rushing to resume executions, recklessly
disregarding the risk that they will cause extreme pain and suffering."
Wells added: "As states rush to kill, ignoring red
flags that their execution protocols are a recipe for torture, there is every
danger we'll witness more prisoners dying in agony. Evidence shows that
executions scheduled in haste are more likely to go wrong. Speeding up the
machinery of death may seem politically expedient in the age of Trump, but in
practice, it leads to more slow and painful deaths on the gurney."
Abraham Bonowitz, executive director of Death Penalty
Action, told Newsweek that the executions "provide multiple
examples of how the death penalty is reserved for the least among us. The
common thread among nearly everyone facing execution in the U.S. is present in
the four executions set to take place over four days next week - abuse,
addiction and neglect at childhood. Mental illness or brain damage is present
in three of the four. Two of the men have co-defendants who are the more
culpable killers, who are not being executed. Failures of appointed defense
attorneys, including missed deadlines or simply a failure to adequately prepare
for trial, may well have determined the path that Wainwright and Hunt are on.
"None of this is necessary because just as we do in the
vast majority of murder cases, we can be safe from these men and punish them
severely by throwing away the key and letting them die of old age in
prison."
The Rev. Jeff Hood, who is a spiritual adviser to two of the
men scheduled for execution next week, told Newsweek: "I've
journeyed with Anthony Wainwright for over three years. He's no monster. He's
become my friend. I hope that he will forgive my inaction as I stand in the
execution chamber and pray while Florida executes him."
He added that Hunt "should be at the epicenter of any
conversation about redemption. He has transformed from brutal murderer into a
faithful pastor to his neighbors on death row. It has been my honor to have sat
at his feet and learned from his ministry."
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said
in a statement, after the state's pardon and parole board denied
clemency for Hanson last month: "The Biden Administration protected this
monster from justice for too long. Now is the time for him to atone for the
pain and suffering he has wrought. Justice will be delivered when the death
penalty is rightly served on June 12."
President Donald Trump's executive
order on the death penalty said: "The Government's most
solemn responsibility is to protect its citizens from abhorrent acts, and my
Administration will not tolerate efforts to stymie and eviscerate the laws that
authorize capital punishment against those who commit horrible acts of violence
against American citizens."
What's Next
If all four executions go ahead next week, it will bring the
total number of executions this year to 23.
Another two executions are scheduled for later in June.
Thomas Lee Gudinas has been scheduled for execution in Florida on June 24 and
Richard Gerald Jordan is set to be executed in Mississippi on June 25.
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