Several executions are expected to take place in the United States this week, with two scheduled Tuesday and one each on Thursday and Friday.
The executions were ordered in Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma and South Carolina. If all of the procedures are carried out as planned, the inmates’ deaths will bring the national total of executions to 23 so far this year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center which tracks the number. In 2024, there were 25 executions across the U.S.
While four inmates being scheduled to die in the same week is not an anomaly in the U.S., their executions present an overall uptick in the use of capital punishment nationwide since January. They also come as the Trump administration seeks to resume death row executions at the federal level.
Here’s what to know about the executions that have been ordered this week.
Anthony Wainwright, Florida
Florida inmate Anthony Wainwright, 54, received a lethal injection and was pronounced dead Tuesday night at Florida State Prison near Starke, The Associated Press reported.
His death warrant, issued by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, set a weeklong window for the execution to take place. The window started at noon local time on Tuesday. Wainwright’s execution was the sixth in Florida in 2025.
Wainwright was sentenced to death in 1995, after receiving multiple convictions related to a “crime spree” the previous year, which included the abduction and murder of 23-year-old Carmen Gayheart, according to court documents. He and an accomplice, Richard Hamilton, were found to have committed the crimes after escaping prison in North Carolina in 1994.
Gregory Hunt, Alabama
Alabama inmate Gregory Hunt, 65, is scheduled to die by nitrogen hypoxia on Tuesday, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announced in May. Hunt received capital punishment after his conviction for the 1998 murder of Karen Lane, according to the state’s Department of Corrections. The death warrant, signed by Ivey, established a 30-hour time frame for the execution to occur, starting at 12 a.m. local time Tuesday and ending on Wednesday, at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore.
Hunt will be the fifth person in Alabama to die by nitrogen hypoxia — a controversial method in which the inmate is deprived of oxygen through inhalation of pure nitrogen.
As states that still practice capital punishment faced difficulties obtaining drugs for lethal injections, nitrogen hypoxia was developed as a workaround to the primary method used around the country. Execution by nitrogen asphyxiation has been the subject of intense public scrutiny within the U.S. and overseas, with U.N. human rights advocates arguing that it “could amount to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment under international human rights law.”
Alabama carried out the country’s first known execution with method on Kenneth Smith in January 2024. Since then, Louisiana became the only other state to execute a death row inmate with nitrogen gas in March of this year.
John Fitzgerald Hanson, Oklahoma
The execution of John Fitzgerald Hanson, also known as George John Hanson, 61, was scheduled for Thursday in Oklahoma — but a judge on Monday granted a temporary stay of the execution.
Hanson’s lawyers have argued he did not receive a fair clemency hearing last month before the state’s five-member Pardon and Parole Board. They claim board member Sean Malloy was biased because he worked for the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office when Hanson was being prosecuted.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond argued the district judge doesn’t have the authority to stay the execution and has asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to vacate it.
Hanson was convicted of capital murder in Oklahoma for the 1999 death of 77-year-old Mary Bowles in Tulsa, according to court records. In order to carry out Hanson’s death sentence, Drummond requested his extradition back into the state from Louisiana, where the inmate had been incarcerated for decades while serving a separate life sentence for robbery.
His transfer to death row was expedited by the Trump administration. If Hanson is executed, he will be the state’s second execution this year.
Stephen Stanko, South Carolina
South Carolina is set to execute Stephen Stanko, 57, by lethal injection Friday for the 1997 murder of Laura Ling. It will be the state’s fourth execution this year and its second using lethal drugs.
The two death row inmates in South Carolina died by firing squad this year after the state legislature approved the method partly due to prison officials not being able to obtain drugs needed for lethal injections. Both of the inmates chose to die by bullets instead of lethal injection or the electric chair.
The Associated Press and
contributed to this report.
Emily Mae Czachor is a news editor at CBSNews.com. She typically covers breaking news, extreme weather and issues involving social and criminal justice. Emily Mae previously wrote for outlets like the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed and Newsweek.
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