Last year, there were 25 executions in the United States, the highest number since 2020. This year, there have been 19 executions, with 10 more scheduled through the end of the year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. (However, two executions are scheduled in Ohio, whose governor has instituted a hiatus on state killing until the legislature adopts a new execution method.) Florida had the highest number of executions, with five (seven more scheduled), followed by Texas, with four (five more planned).
Texas, Indiana, and Tennessee each killed one person last week.
Texas, which has already executed three people this year, killed Matthew Johnson last Tuesday by lethal injection. Johnson was convicted of killing Nancy Harris, a convenience store clerk, during a robbery in 2012. According to the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Johnson was seriously addicted to cocaine, “an addiction that plagued him for most of his life in the free world and caused him to become a different person.” TCADP notes that, during his 12 years of incarceration (and consequent lack of access to cocaine), Johnson “has not been a threat to anyone,” in contrast to the prosecution’s contention during his trial that he would be a future threat to society if he weren’t executed.
Indiana executed Benjamin Ritchie one minute after midnight last Tuesday, the state’s second execution since 2009. Richie was convicted of killing police officer William Toney in September 2009 while trying to escape arrest after stealing a van. Texas’ 15-year halt in state killing was the result of an inability to obtain lethal injection drugs. Last year, the state was finally able to purchase pentobarbital for $900,000, the Indiana Capital Chronicle reported.
Tennessee killed 75-year-old Oscar Franklin Smith last Thursday with a lethal injection of pentobarbital. It was the state’s first execution since 2019. The state put its executions on hold because of its inability to follow execution protocols. In fact, in 2022, Smith was granted a temporary reprieve when Gov. Bill Lee called for a third-party review of the state’s lethal injection protocol, including the thoroughness of testing lethal injection chemicals, clarity of the lethal injection process manual, adherence to the process manual, and TDOC staffing considerations.
Smith was convicted of the 1989 murder of his estranged wife, 35-year-old Judy Smith, and her two sons, Chad, 16, and Jason, 13, and was sentenced to death in 1990, WKRN reported.
