Additional Coverage:
Four Executions Scheduled This Week Across Multiple States
Four executions are scheduled this week in Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma, and South Carolina. If carried out, these executions will bring the 2025 total to 23, an increase compared to the 25 executions that occurred in all of 2024, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. This uptick comes as the federal government seeks to reinstate federal executions.
Alabama
Gregory Hunt, 65, is scheduled to be executed in Alabama on Tuesday by nitrogen hypoxia for the 1998 murder of Karen Lane. This marks the fifth use of nitrogen hypoxia in Alabama and the first time someone was executed in the United States by nitrogen hypoxia was in January 2024.
Hunt’s execution is scheduled to occur within a 30-hour window beginning at 12 a.m. local time on Tuesday at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore.
The use of nitrogen hypoxia has drawn criticism from human rights organizations, who have raised concerns about the potential for suffering and its compliance with international law.
Florida
Anthony Wainwright, 54, faces execution by lethal injection in Florida, possibly as early as Tuesday. Governor Ron DeSantis issued a death warrant with a week-long window for the execution, starting at 12 p.m. local time on Tuesday, June 10th, and ending at 12 p.m. on Tuesday, June 17th.
Wainwright was sentenced to death in 1995 for the abduction and murder of Carmen Gayheart during a crime spree following a prison escape from North Carolina. This will be Florida’s sixth execution this year.
Oklahoma
John Fitzgerald Hanson, 61, also known as George John Hanson, was scheduled for execution in Oklahoma on Thursday. However, a judge temporarily stayed the execution due to concerns raised by Hanson’s lawyers about a potentially biased clemency hearing.
Hanson was convicted for the 1999 murder of Mary Bowles in Tulsa. The Oklahoma Attorney General is contesting the stay.
If the execution proceeds, it will be Oklahoma’s second this year.
South Carolina
Stephen Stanko, 57, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in South Carolina on Friday for the 1997 murder of Laura Ling. This will be South Carolina’s fourth execution this year, and second by lethal injection. Earlier this year, two inmates were executed by firing squad, a newly approved method adopted due to the difficulty in obtaining lethal injection drugs.