While additional executions may and likely will be scheduled, death warrants for 18 people have been signed in five states, the Death Penalty Information Center reports. However, it’s unlikely the six executions Ohio has scheduled will proceed because of that state’s inability to obtain lethal injection drugs.
The first execution of the year is set for this week in Texas. Florida follows with two in February. Texas and Tennessee have scheduled the most so far, with four each. Of the four people Texas plans to kill, three are Black, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
In Tennessee, Christa Pike, who was only 18 at the time of the crime for which she was convicted, is set to be executed in September. If her execution proceeds, she will be the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years, and the only person in Tennessee in the modern era to be executed for a crime committed at 18, according to the Tennesseean.
Last year, 47 individuals were killed in 11 states, the highest number in America in 15 years.