Four executed in Texas, Alabama, Arizona, Oklahoma despite objections

The US judiciary has ruled for and carried out the execution of four men from four separate states despite objections to this practice.

The executed inmates had faced numerous challenges and, according to lawyers and supporters, injustices in their encounters with the criminal legal system, including prosecutorial and police misconduct, ineffective assistance of counsel, discrimination against Black jurors, judicial override of jury decision making, debilitating mental illness and brain damage.

Oklahoma executed Richard Stephen Fairchild and Alabama [likely] put Kenneth Eugene Smith to death on Thursday, while Stephen Barbee in Texas and Murray Hooper in Arizona were executed a day earlier.

Fairchild, was among 25 inmates on Oklahoma's death row who had their execution dates set over the summer after the state's lethal injection protocol was upheld by a federal judge.

His attorneys had asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to stay his execution, arguing that he is mentally ill and not competent to be executed.

Death penalty opponents said they had delivered a "Happy Death Day" cake to Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt's office on Wednesday to protest Fairchild's execution.

Meanwhile, the state of Alabama has planned to execute Smith on Thursday, an inmate whose jury’s 11-1 vote for a life sentence was overridden by the trial judge who opted instead for the death penalty, a practice the state has since repealed.

Smith was sentenced to death by injection at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama for his role in the contract killing of Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett in 1988.

Meanwhile, this is not the first time in recent years that several executions have been carried out in a single week – it was quite common in pre-pandemic times.

In 2020, during the week of Jan.13, seven execution dates were scheduled by three different states and the federal government.

Some of these execution dates were stayed because of issues with litigation and execution protocols, and one person was instead sentenced to life without parole.

In Dec. 2019, six executions were scheduled by two states within the same week, and six executions were scheduled within a week in October 2017. And during Arkansas’ execution spree in April, 2017, four executions took place in a week.

MG