Texas, Indiana, and Tennessee will each execute a person this week: two men will be killed on Tuesday and one man on Thursday.
Texas, which has already executed three people this year, plans to kill Matthew Johnson on 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 that he would be a future threat to society if he weren’t executed.
Indiana is planning to execute Benjamin Ritchie one minute after midnight on 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, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle.
Tennessee is resuming state killing after a five-year pause. The state plans to kill 75-year-old Oscar Franklin Smith, convicted of the 1989 murder of his estranged wife, 35-year-old Judy Smith, and her two sons, Chad, 16, and Jason, 13, WKRN reports.
If all three executions proceed, they will be the 19th executions so far this year. In 2024, 25 people were killed by the state.
