U.S. to execute three death row inmates this week
Matthew Johnson, aged 49, is set to receive a lethal injection at the Texas State Penitentiary for the 2012 killing of 76-year-old Nancy Harris, a grandmother.
A man convicted of murdering a convenience store clerk by setting her on fire is scheduled to be executed in Texas on Tuesday, one of three executions planned across the United States this week.
Matthew Johnson, aged 49, is set to receive a lethal injection at the Texas State Penitentiary for the 2012 killing of 76-year-old Nancy Harris, a grandmother.
During his trial, Johnson confessed to dousing Harris with lighter fluid and setting her ablaze during a pre-dawn robbery at a convenience store in Garland, Texas.
Harris sustained critical burns and was removed from life support five days after the attack.
Johnson’s execution is one of two set for Tuesday.
In Indiana, 45-year-old Benjamin Ritchie is scheduled to die by lethal injection for the 2000 killing of police officer Bill Toney. This will mark only the second execution in the state since 2009.
Toney, a father of two, was fatally shot while chasing a van that Ritchie and an accomplice had stolen from a gas station in Beech Grove.
Ritchie's execution is expected to take place at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City sometime between midnight Central Time (0500 GMT) and sunrise.
The third execution set for this week will take place in Tennessee.
Oscar Smith, 75, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Thursday for the 1989 killings of his estranged wife, Judy Smith, and her two sons, Chad and Jason Burnett, who were both shot and stabbed.
So far this year, the United States has carried out 16 executions: 12 by lethal injection, two by firing squad, and two using nitrogen gas.
Currently, 23 of the 50 U.S. states have abolished the death penalty, while California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania have official moratoriums in place.
President Donald Trump has been a strong supporter of the death penalty, and on his first day in office, he advocated for its broader application, particularly in cases involving the most heinous crimes.
