Three US Executions Carried Out in a Single Day

Three inmates were executed across Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Alabama on Thursday, bringing the total number of US executions this year to 22 amid ongoing debate over capital punishment.

Execution in Tennessee

In Tennessee, the death penalty was carried out on 66-year-old Anthony Darrell Hines. The convicted man was executed for the 1985 murder of 54-year-old Catherine Jean Jenkins, a mother of four who worked at a motel. According to Fox, Hines died at 10:43 local time.

The man’s lawyers unsuccessfully tried to stop the execution by pointing to his health condition, as he was partially paralyzed following two strokes. “This day brings justice. After so many years, we can finally close this chapter of our lives,” commented Catherine Jenkins’ daughter, Melissa, later.

Executions in Oklahoma and Alabama

Capital punishment in the US: Three executions on Thursday. In Oklahoma, Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez was executed half an hour earlier for the 2003 murder of his partner, Olimpia Fisher. In the evening in Alabama, the sentence was carried out on 42-year-old Jeremy Williams, convicted of the 2021 rape and murder of five-year-old Kamarie Holland. He died at 18:16 local time.

According to an analysis by USA Today, five states have already carried out 22 executions this year, and at least 12 more are planned. Last year, 47 inmates were executed—the most since 2009.

Human Rights Concerns and Amnesty International

“Irreversible violation of human rights.” For years, human rights organizations have been fighting for the abolition of the death penalty, including in the United States.

“The death penalty is the ultimate, irreversible violation of human rights. The risk of executing an innocent person can never be eliminated. Hundreds of death row inmates in the United States have later been exonerated or released from death row due to innocence. Others were executed despite serious doubts about their guilt,” points out Amnesty International USA.

Amnesty International also notes that “there is no evidence that the death penalty definitively deters crime or improves public safety.” The organization also points out that not all US states use the death penalty, meaning that as a result, “it is not administered based on the severity of the crime, but based on the place where it was committed.”

Historical Context in Poland

In Poland, the last death penalty sentence was carried out in 1988. It was ultimately abolished in 1998 with the entry into force of the amendment to the Penal Code.

Co-author: from New York Andrzej Dobrowolski (PAP)

Edited by Jan Latała