Four states are scheduled to execute five prisoners by Nov. 17, says the Death Penalty Information Center. Two are set in Texas, and one each in Alabama, Arizona and Oklahoma. If all five of these executions go forward, it will be the most executions completed in the UlS. in such a short period of time in a decade, says Ohio State University law Prof. Douglas Berman in his Sentencing Law and Policy blog. In 2012, between November 6 and 15, Texas completed three executions and Ohio and Oklahoma also completed one.
So many execution in a short period would be a dramatic break from recent norms in the U.S., Berman says. Since roughly the start of the pandemic, the U.S. has averaged only about one execution per month as various states have continued to have difficulties carrying out executions. Even before COVID hit, the U.S. averaged only about two executions per month when President Trump was in office and under four executions per month when President Obama was in office. About seven executions per month was the national average during President Clinton's second term, and around five per month for most of President George W. Bush's two terms.