Miami (AFP) – A Florida man who committed five murders while a teenager is to be put to death by lethal injection on Thursday, the 19th execution in the southern US state this year. Frank Walls, 58, was convicted of the 1987 murders of Edward Alger, 21, and his girlfriend Ann Peterson, 20, during a robbery of their home. Walls also confessed to committing three other murders. He is to be executed at 6:00 pm (2300 GMT) at a state prison in Raiford.
Florida has carried out 18 executions this year, more than any other US state. There have been five each in Alabama and Texas. There have been 46 executions in the United States this year, the most since 2010, when 46 inmates were also put to death. There were 52 executions in the United States in 2009. Thirty-eight of this year’s executions have been carried out by lethal injection. Three have been by firing squad and five by nitrogen hypoxia, which involves pumping nitrogen gas into a face mask, causing the prisoner to suffocate.
The use of nitrogen gas as a method of capital punishment has been denounced by United Nations experts as cruel and inhumane. The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others — California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania — have moratoriums in place. President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment and, on his first day in office, called for an expansion of its use “for the vilest crimes.”
© 2024 AFP
