Two convicted murderers are scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in the United States on Thursday, one in Alabama and one in Texas.
Casey McWhorter, 49, is to be put to death at a prison in Atmore, Alabama, for the 1993 murder of Edward Williams, who was shot to death during a robbery.
McWhorter had just turned 18 years old at the time of the crime.
His two accomplices, one of whom was the son of the murdered man, were aged 16 and 15 and were spared the death sentence because they were juveniles.
David Renteria, 53, is to be executed at the Texas State Penitentiary in the town of Huntsville for the November 2001 murder of a five-year-old girl, Alexandra Flores.
He was convicted of abducting Flores from a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, where she had been shopping for Christmas with her parents. Her burned body was found the next day. She had been strangled to death.
At his trial, Renteria claimed he was forced by gang members to dispose of the girl’s body but denied murdering her.
There have been seven executions in Texas this year and 21 in the United States.
According to a recent Gallup Poll, 53 percent of Americans support the death penalty for someone convicted of murder, the lowest level since 1972.
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 US states, while three others — California, Oregon and Pennsylvania — have observed a moratorium on its use.
Executions have been carried out in five states this year — Alabama, Florida, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.
The death penalty has been primarily carried out by lethal injection in recent years, but Alabama intends to execute an inmate next year using nitrogen gas.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey has set January 25 as the execution date for Kenneth Smith, 58, who was sentenced to death for a 1988 murder.
