Alabama and Florida execute two convicted rape and murder convicts
So far this year, 19 inmates have been executed, with two more scheduled for execution this week.
Anthony F. Wainwright (left) and Gregory Hunt (right)
Two men sentenced to death for murder were executed Tuesday, one by nitrogen asphyxiation—a controversial method permitted in only two states.
The latter was Gregory Hunt, 65, convicted in 1988 of rape and murder. His victim was 32-year-old Karen Lane, whom he had been dating for a month. Hunt became the fifth person executed by nitrogen asphyxiation in the state, following Kenneth Eugene Smith, who was the first to be executed by this method last year.
The other executed was Anthony Wainwright, 54, in Florida. He died by lethal injection at Raiford State Prison. Wainwright had been on death row for the 1994 rape and murder of Carmen Gayheart, a 23-year-old nursing student and mother of two young children.
Wainwright and an accomplice, Richard Hamilton, kidnapped Carmen Gayheart just three days after escaping from a North Carolina prison. Hamilton was also sentenced to death for the young woman’s murder but died in prison before his execution could be carried out.
Capital punishment in the United States
The death penalty is abolished in 23 of the 50 U.S. states. Additionally, three states — California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania — currently have official moratoriums on its use.
Two more executions for the week
Two additional executions are scheduled in the United States this week. However, the first—John Hanson’s in Oklahoma—has been temporarily halted by a judge. Hanson, 61, was sentenced to death for the 1999 kidnapping and murder of 77-year-old Mary Bowles.
The judge who issued the stay of execution for John Hanson argued that his rights were violated during the clemency hearing. However, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond has petitioned an appeals court to overturn the stay, aiming to proceed with the execution as originally scheduled.
The second execution is set to occur in South Carolina, where 57-year-old Stephen Stanko is scheduled to die by lethal injection. He was convicted of the 2005 murders of his girlfriend, 43-year-old Laura Ling, and 74-year-old Henry Turner, a friend of the couple.
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