Nation Prepares for Three Executions

Three states will be executing inmates on Tuesday. Texas, Oklahoma and Georgia have scheduled executions, bringing the number of executions this year to 27.

There have been 1,080 executions in the United States since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1977. Texas accounts for 394 of these executions

Oklahoma will execute Jimmy Dale Bland by lethal injection for the 1996 murder of Doyle Windle Rains, 62. Attorneys for Bland asked for a stay of execution because Bland is terminally ill with lung cancer that has spread to his brain and hip bone, and is said to be "on the verge of death". Members of the Rains family urged the state to go ahead with the execution, according to Crime and Punishment /About com. This will be Oklahoma's second execution this year. On January 9, Corey Hamilton was executed.

Georgia will execute John Washington Hightower, 63, by lethal injection, for the murders of his wife Dorothy Hightower and two stepdaughters Evelyn Reaves and Sandra Reaves in July of 1987.The murders occurred as the three slept.Dorothy and her daughter Sandra were shot in the head and died in their beds, but Eveyn was shot as she tried to escape. She died just days later from injuries sub stained. A 3 year old infant was spared and Hightower was reported by Associated Press as saying he "didn't have any problems with the baby". This will be the first execution carried out by the state of Georgia in nearly 2 years. The last execution by Georgia was Robert Conklin 44, who was executed by lethal injection on July 12, 2005.

Texas will execute Patrick Bryan Knight, 39, by lethal injection for the murders of his then neighbors Mary Ann and Walter Werner. A co-defendant Robert Bradfield was also convicted of capital murder, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. The Werner's were murdered execution style and shot in the back of their heads as they were forced to kneel. Knight eventually confessed to the murders and brought police to where their bodies were. Knight gained notoriety to his case when he recently solicited jokes, so he could read one from his gurney as the "last statement". Texas has executed 17 inmates so far this year and is sometimes called the "busiest killing state".

Sources

http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR511072007

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19196443/

http://crime.about.com/b/a/257458.htm