Five executions scheduled in five different states over the next week

Over the first eight months of 2024, the United States has averaged less than two executions per month.  And two executions per month has been, very roughly, the average pace of executions in the US for the past decade.  For context and comparison, over the decade from 2005 to 2014, the US averaged nearly four executions per month; over the decade from 1995 to 2004, the US average approach almost six executions per month. 

But starting with a scheduled execution in South Carolina tomorrow, there are five executions scheduled over the next week with Missouri and Texas both having executions scheduled for Tuesday, September 24, and Oklahoma and Alabama both having executions scheduled for Thursday, September 26.  Based on a (too quick) scan of the DPIC database, I believe it has been nearly 15 years since the US has completed five executions within a week. 

It remains to be seen if all of these executions will be completed as scheduled.  As Chris Geidner discusses in this new substack post, some of the condemned are raising innocence claims and others are pressing various litigation avenues seeking to disrupt state execution plans.  If all these scheduled executions are completed, the US would have carried a total of exactly 1600 executions in the "modern" death penalty era (which is now nearly 50 years along).