Amnesty International on Thursday criticised the U.S. state of Arkansas over its plans to execute seven convicted killers in an 11-day period this month.
Erika Guevara Rosas, director of Amnesty International in the Americas, said in a press statement that such a serie of executions would be unprecedented in modern U.S. history.
“Especially after the United States in 2016 recorded its lowest annual number of executions in a quarter of a century.
“It is not too late for Arkansas to halt these executions,” Rosas said.
She said Arkansas’ plans of a “conveyor belt of death” was out of step with the rest of the world when it came to state-sanctioned killing.
According to the Death Penalty Information Centre, in 2016 the number of executions across the U.S. was 20.
Report says the first two of the seven executions in Arkansas is to take place on Monday followed by two more on Thursday and the other three in the last week of the month.
The executions are to be carried out by lethal injections.
Arkansas is in a rush because the expiration date on its supply of one of the drugs used is April 30, and the state says it may not be able to get a fresh supply.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is calling on Gov. Asa Hutchinson to stop the executions.
It said over 70,000 people had signed a petition aimed at pressuring Hutchinson to stop them.
The drug, midazolam, is controversial because it caused botched executions in other states. (dpa/NAN)
ACO/AMY
