DPIC Analysis: What is the Most Executions Conducted in the U.S. in the Shortest Time Span?

On February 27, 2017, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson signed orders for an unprece­dent­ed eight exe­cu­tions to be car­ried out over a peri­od of eleven days in April. The sched­uled dates for the four sets of dou­ble exe­cu­tions are: April 17, Bruce Ward and Don Davis; April 20, Stacey Johnson and Ledell Lee; April 24, Jack Jones and Marcel Williams; and April 27, Kenneth Williams and Jason McGehee. Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge had asked that the dates be set after the U.S. Supreme Court on February 21 declined to review a state court deci­sion uphold­ing Arkansas’ lethal injection protocol.

After Governor Hutchinson issued the exe­cu­tion orders, we received a flur­ry of press inquiries ask­ing whether any state had car­ried out so many exe­cu­tions in such a short time span. 

We looked into this and found that, since states resumed exe­cu­tions in the 1970s, no state has ever exe­cut­ed eight pris­on­ers in eleven days. Only one state — Texas — has ever exe­cut­ed 8 pris­on­ers in a cal­en­dar month. That has occurred only twice (in back to back months), when Texas con­duct­ed eight exe­cu­tions in both May and June of 1997.

Scheduling two or more exe­cu­tions on the same day is also unusu­al. It has hap­pened just ten times in the past forty years, all between 1994 and 2000. The last time it occurred was when Texas exe­cut­ed Brian Roberson and Oliver Cruz on August 9, 2000.

Only four states have car­ried out mul­ti­ple exe­cu­tions on the same day: Arkansas (4 times), Texas (3 times), Illinois (twice), and South Carolina (once). Arkansas is the only state to have con­duct­ed triple exe­cu­tions, which it has done twice — on August 3, 1994 and January 8, 1997. No state has car­ried out more than one dou­ble exe­cu­tion in the same week. The short­est time span between mul­ti­ple exe­cu­tions in any state is 84 days: Arkansas exe­cut­ed Edward Pickens and Jonas Whitmore on May 11, 1994 and co-defen­dants James Holmes, Darryl Richley, and Hoyt Clines on August 3 of that year.

The hur­ried sched­ule in Arkansas appears to be an attempt to use the state’s extant sup­ply of eight dos­es of mida­zo­lam, which are to expire at the end of April 2017. At the time the exe­cu­tion sched­ule was announced, Arkansas did not have a sup­ply of potas­si­um chlo­ride, the killing drug spec­i­fied in its exe­cu­tion pro­to­col, but has sub­se­quent­ly announced that it has obtain suf­fi­cient sup­plies of that drug to car­ry out the scheduled executions.

Here are the dates on which states have con­duct­ed multiple executions:

Triple Executions

• Arkansas, August 3, 1994: James Holmes, Darryl Richley, and Hoyt Clines*
• Arkansas, January 8, 1997: Paul Ruiz, Earl Van Denton, and Kirt Wainwright
  

Double Executions

• Texas, January 31, 1995: Clifton Russell and Willie Williams
• Texas, June 4, 1997: Davis Losada and Dorsie Johnson-Bey
• Texas, August 9, 2000: Brian Roberson and Oliver Cruz
• Arkansas, May 11, 1994: Edward Pickens and Jonas Whitmore
• Arkansas, September 8, 1999: Allen Willett and Mark Gardner
• Illinois, March 22, 1995: Hernando Williams and James Free
• Illinois, November 19, 1997: Walter Stewart and Durlyn Eddmonds
• South Carolina, December 4, 1998: J.D. Gleaton and Larry Gilbert*

* Co-defen­dants

No state has suc­cess­ful­ly exe­cut­ed two pris­on­ers on the same day using mida­zo­lam. Oklahoma attempt­ed to do so on April 29, 2014, but called off the sec­ond exe­cu­tion after the botched exe­cu­tion of Clayton Lockett ear­li­er that night. The eight pris­on­ers sched­uled for exe­cu­tion make up 23% of Arkansas’ cur­rent death row.

Here are the two cal­en­dar months in which Texas exe­cut­ed 8 prisoners.

To deter­mine the most exe­cu­tions in any 11-day peri­od in the mod­ern era of the United States’ death penal­ty, we wrote a cus­tom pro­gram to search our exe­cu­tion data­base. The answer? From December 4 – 12, 2002, 6 states con­duct­ed a com­bined total of 9 exe­cu­tions in 9 days.

The short­est time span in which 8 exe­cu­tions were car­ried out occurred dur­ing part of that same 9‑day span. In the 7 days from Dec. 6 – 12, 2002, 6 states con­duct­ed a com­bined 8 exe­cu­tions. Then, from April 28-May 5, 1999, 5 states exe­cut­ed a total of 8 pris­on­ers in 8 days. In anoth­er over­lap­ping 9‑day span, 6 states car­ried out a com­bined total of 8 exe­cu­tions from Dec. 9 – 17, 2002.

Here are the search results.

Nine (9) Executions

Date Range: December 4, 2002 to December 13, 2002

Eight (8) Executions

Date Range: April 28, 1999 to May 7, 1999

Date Range: December 6, 2002 to December 15, 2002

Date Range: December 9, 2002 to December 18, 2002

We also checked to see the most num­ber of pris­on­ers a sin­gle state had exe­cut­ed over any 11-day peri­od in the mod­ern era. The answer is 6. Texas exe­cut­ed 6 pris­on­ers in 10 days twice, once in the 10 days from May 13 – 22, 1997 and a sec­ond time in the 10 days from January 18 – 27, 2000.

Date Range: May 13, 1997 to May 22, 1997

Date Range: January 18, 2000 to January 27, 2000

-Robert Dunham, Executive Director (Updated March 23, 2017) 

Update

On April 17, 2017, the Arkansas Supreme Court grant­ed stays of exe­cu­tion to Bruce Ward and Don Davis, both of whom were sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed that day. The court had pre­vi­ous­ly issued Ward a stay on oth­er grounds. In addi­tion, the fed­er­al dis­trict court had grant­ed a sep­a­rate stay of exe­cu­tion to Jason McGehee, who had been sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on April 27.

We searched the DPIC exe­cu­tion data­base to see whether any state had car­ried out as many as five exe­cu­tions in as lit­tle as eight days. Here is what we found:

Date Range: May 16, 1997 to May 23, 1997

Date Range: May 28, 1997 to June 4, 1997

Date Range: January 18, 2000 to January 25, 2000

Date Range: January 20, 2000 to January 27, 2000

In the mod­ern his­to­ry of the U.S. death penal­ty, no state has exe­cut­ed more than five pris­on­ers in an eight-day time span. Texas is the only state to have done so — in May and June of 1997 and in two over­lap­ping eight-day peri­ods in January 2000. Arkansas exe­cu­tions would tie the state for the most exe­cu­tions in an eight-day-period. 

Computer analy­sis by Dane Lindberg (Updated April 18, 2017)

The DPIC exe­cu­tion data­base is avail­able here.