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By Jenna Sundel
News Reporter
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Five death row inmates in the U.S. are expected to be executed in the coming days, potentially bringing the total for the year to 18.
The upcoming executions are scheduled for Friday, Tuesday and Thursday in South Carolina, Texas, Missouri, Alabama and Oklahoma.
"I hope we never get so used to executions that this number is ever normal," Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, told Newsweek. "It is an unusual number of executions to happen in this short a period of time."
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Maher said there does not appear to be a connection between the proximity of the executions.
"What we're seeing now is just an unusual sort of coordination of these execution dates that were likely made independent of each other," Maher said. "It was the elected officials in each of those states who decided who is going to be executed and when."
She added that there is no public pressure for increasing the number of completed death sentences.
"This is not coming from the general public," Maher said. "We haven't seen any evidence the pubic is eager for more executions or is frustrated with the pace. This is coming entirely from the elected officials in those states who feel some great rush towards finality, even when there are serious concerns about innocence."
Who is Freddie 'Khalil' Eugene Owens?
Freddie "Khalil" Eugene Owens is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, South Carolina on Friday.
He will be the first person executed in the state in 13 years.
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Owens was convicted of murder in the death of gas station clerk Irene Graves during an armed robbery in 1997. He received a death sentence.
Owens, now 46, was 19 years old at the time.
A key witness in the trial, co-defendant Steven Golden, signed a statement on Wednesday claiming Owens is innocent.
"Freddie Owens is not the person who shot Irene Graves at the Speedway on November 1, 1997," Golden said in the sworn statement filed to the South Carolina Supreme Court. "Freddie was not present when I robbed the Speedway that day."
Maher explained why this reversal is a significant development in the case.
"This is the only witness to the actual crime and someone who was given a deal by the prosecution to testify against Mr. Owens, and that should create even more concern about the legitimacy of the conviction against Mr. Owens," Maher said.
Who is Travis James Mullis?
Travis James Mullis, 37, is expected to be executed by lethal injection at the Huntsville Unit in Huntsville, Texas on Tuesday.
He will be the fourth person executed in the state this year.
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"[Texas] continues to be an aggressive user of the death penalty, despite changing public opinion in the state of Texas itself," Maher said. "We've seen a real change in the number of new death sentences in Texas and in other states that reflect that juries who are asked to make a decision between life and death are deciding for life much, much more often than they are deciding for death."
Mullis was found guilty of capital murder in 2011. He was accused of sexually assaulting his 3-month-old son, Alijah Mullis, then stomping on his head and choking him, resulting in death.
He will be the youngest inmate executed this year. He was 21 years old at the time of the offense.
"Mr. Mullis also has some very serious mental illness in his life and I know that he was also abused as a child," Maher said.
Who is Marcellus "Khaliifah" Williams?
Marcellus "Khaliifah" Williams, 55, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Tuesday at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, Missouri.
He will be the third death row inmate executed in the state this year.
Williams was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in connection with the 1998 death of social worker and former journalist Felicia Gayle. Gayle had been stabbed and cut 43 times with a butcher's knife from her kitchen.
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The case is receiving national attention due to concerns surrounding the accuracy of the conviction. St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell brought a challenge before the judge stating that someone else's DNA was found on the knife used to kill Gayle.
"It is quite astonishing that the prosecutor in that case, the sitting prosecutor, Wesley Bell, has confessed error and has agreed that Mr. Williams' conviction was not fairly obtained, so he is in favor of a different result for Mr. Williams," Maher said.
The NAACP sent a letter to Missouri Governor Mike Parson stating that going through with the execution would be a "horrible miscarriage of justice."
Williams had maintained his innocence in the incident, but he agreed to plead no contest last month in exchange for a revised sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole.
The Missouri Attorney General's Office opposed the effort, which was later rejected by the Missouri Supreme Court.
"This case is emblematic of the corrupting influence of electoral politics and the role it can sometimes play in death penalty cases," Maher said.
She pointed out that the previous governor in the state granted Williams a stay of execution.
"If the previous governor was still in office, Mr. Williams would not be facing an execution today, but because there has been a change in elected officials, he is facing an execution today," Maher said. "That really highlights just how arbitrary the use of the death penalty can be, and how affected it can be by the decisions of elected officials that have nothing to do with the law, with guilt or innocence."
Who is Alan Eugene Miller?
Alan Eugene Miller, 59, is expected to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia on Thursday at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama.
Miller will be the second death row inmate killed by nitrogen hypoxia. The method was first used on Kenneth Eugene Smith on January 25 in Alabama.
"That execution resulted in media reports that stated there was a great deal of pain and suffering by the prisoner, Mr. Smith, during that execution with nitrogen gas," Maher said.
Nitrogen hypoxia is a lethal practice where the individual is forced to only breathe nitrogen, causing asphyxiation.
The state previously attempted to execute Miller by lethal injection in 2022, but they were unable to access a vein.
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"Alabama has a terrible history of botched executions," Maher said. "It's the very last state in the country that should be turning to a new and barely tested procedure like the use of nitrogen gas."
Miller was found guilty on three counts of capital murder and sentenced to death for the 1999 killings of three men. Two were coworkers of Miller at a heating and air-conditioning distributor, Lee Holdbrooks and Christopher Yancy. The other man was Miller's former supervisor, Terry Jarvis.
Maher said that Miller's legal team did not represent him to the best of their ability.
"His lawyers basically said he was guilty right out of the gate," Maher said. "They did not give him a meaningful defense at all. Even despite that, the jury still struggled to sentence him to death, and with a [non-unanimous] verdict of 10 to two [recommending] a death sentence. So you can only imagine if he had competent lawyers, he would have never been on death row at all."
Who is Emmanuel Antonio Littlejohn?
Emmanuel Antonio Littlejohn is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Thursday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma.
Littlejohn, 52, will be the third inmate executed in the state this year.
He was found guilty of murder, robbery and attempted robbery in 1994. He was sentenced to death on the murder charge.
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Littlejohn and Glenn Bethany were accused of robbing a convenience store and fatally shooting the store owner in 1992. Bethany was convicted of murder and robbery and sentenced to life in prison.
Oklahoma's Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 last month to recommend the governor spare Littlejohn's life. Governor Kevin Stitt will decide whether to commute Littlejohn's sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
"It's very, very difficult to get a clemency recommendation these days, and he did persuade the board after it heard all the evidence of his life," Maher said.
Littlejohn was 20 years old at the time of the shooting. Maher said he was abused throughout his childhood.
"We know so much more about brain science and the development of juvenile brains. We know that the brain is not fully mature until in the early 20s for many young people, particularly when they've experienced trauma and abuse," Maher said.
Maher also claimed that there were inconsistencies in arguments made during the trial.
"The prosecutors who prosecuted Mr. Littlejohn also prosecuted his co-defendant and alleged that they were both were the shooter, so they used inconsistent theories, arguing to each of those juries that the person on trial was the actual shooter," Maher said. "And so Mr. Littlejohn has basically been convicted of a crime that someone else has been convicted of. So it is really quite an awful situation and I think that was probably a major factor that resulted in a clemency recommendation from the board."
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