There are 5 executions set over a week's span in the U.S. That's the most in decades

Death row inmates in five states are scheduled to be put to death in the span of one week, an unusually high number of executions that defies a yearslong trend of decline in both the use and support of the death penalty in the U. S. If carried out as planned, executions in Alabama, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas will mark the first time in more than 20 years that five were held in seven days. Experts say it's an anomaly that resulted from courts or elected officials in individual states setting dates around the same time after inmates exhausted their appeals. The first of the five scheduled executions took place on Friday when South Carolina put inmate Freddie Owens to death for the 1997 killing of a convenience store clerk during a robbery.

If the other four scheduled this week proceed, the United States will have reached 1,600 executions since the death penalty was reinstated by the U. S. Supreme Court in 1976. If carried out as planned, the executions in Alabama, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas will mark the first time in more than 20 years — since July 2003 — that five were held in seven days, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, which takes no position on capital punishment but has criticized the way states carry out executions. The first execution was carried out on Friday in South Carolina, and if the other four scheduled this week proceed, the United States will have reached 1,600 executions since the death penalty was reinstated.