Five inmates are scheduled to be executed in five states over a weeks-long span, the most over that span of time in decades.

The planned executions are to happen in South Carolina, Missouri, Alabama Texas, and Oklahoma and if carried out will mark a departure from recent declining trends of both support for, and use of capital punishment in the U.S. Only five states, Texas, Alabama, Florida, Missouri, and Oklahoma, carried out a total of 23 executions in 2023. Public support for the death penalty has also declined over the last several decades. According to a Gallop poll in 1985 62% of respondents believed capital punishment was an effective deterrent to crime. In 2011 that number had dropped to 32%.

If all the scheduled executions go through it will be the first time since 2003 that five executions were performed in a seven-day span. South Carolina was the first to carry out their execution last Friday and the four remaining, if carried out, will mark 1600 executions in the U.S. since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

On Tuesday, Marcellus Williams, a death row inmate who has lobbied for a stay of execution to no avail, was executed for the gruesome murder of a former news reporter during a break-in of her St. Louis home.

On Aug 11, 1998, Williams, 55, was convicted of stabbing Lisha Gayle, a former police reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, to death during a home invasion. Gayle was described as a “once-in-a-lifetime friend” who saw good in everybody.

The inmate has claimed innocence since the start of his trial more than two decades ago to no avail. Recently, he’s garnered the attention of prosecutors and advocacy groups, like the Innocence Project, who have called on Republican Gov. Mike Parson to call off William’s execution, citing the lack of DNA evidence connecting the death row inmate to the crime.

Executions peaked at the turn of the millennium reaching a total of 98 in 1999 and have been steadily declining ever since as many states have moved away from capital punishment. California, the country’s most populous state, has not put anyone to death since 2006 due to a federal court order barring the practice, as well as a moratorium put in place in 2019 by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Texas holds the title of the state who has executed the most prisoners since the Supreme Court ruling with a total of 589 people being put to death since 1977, according to the Texas Department of Corrections. Texas’ executions account for more than a third of the total executions in the U.S.

South Carolina’s execution that took place last week saw Freddie Owens the man convicted of a 1997 convenience store robbery that ended with the clerk of the store being killed. Owens’ execution was the first carried out in South Carolina in 13 years and was delayed significantly because of the state’s inability to obtain the drugs necessary for the lethal injection. Missouri is set to execute 55-year-old Marcellus Williams on Tuesday for the 1998 killing of local newspaper reporter Felicia Gayle.

Both the victim’s family and the prosecutor who tried the case have asked both the Missouri Supreme Court and Gov. Mike Parson to halt the execution as no DNA evidence found at the crime scene was linked to Williams. The Missouri Supreme Court, Gov. Parson, and the U.S. Supreme Court have declined to halt the execution. Williams has maintained his innocence throughout the process. In their opinion, the Missouri Supreme Court said Williams’ attorneys “failed to demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence Williams’ actual innocence or constitutional error at the original criminal trial.”

A Texas man who stomped his three-month-old son to death more than 16 years ago was also put to death Travis Mullis, 38, was executed by lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. The inmate, who was condemned for killing his son Alijah in January 2008, repeatedly sought to waive his right to appeal his death sentence. His lawyers also did not file a clemency petition with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.

Authorities say Mullis, who was 21 at the time and lived in Brazoria County, drove to nearby Galveston with his son after fighting with his girlfriend. Mullis parked his car and sexually assaulted his son. After the infant began to cry uncontrollably, Mullis began strangling him before taking him out of the car and stomping on his head, according to authorities.

Both Alabama and Oklahoma have their executions scheduled for Thursday and Alabama’s is unique as it will be only the second execution carried out using nitrogen gas. Alabama became the first state to use this method in January of this year.

Alabama will execute Alan Miller for the 1999 killings of three men during two separate workplace shootings. Oklahoma is set to execute Emmanuel Littlejohn by lethal injection for the 1992 killing of a convenient store clerk during a robbery.

Lethal injection remains the most used method of execution over the last few decades, although a handful of sentences have been carried out by electrocution, gas, and hanging. Three have been killed by hanging since and three by firing squad since 1977 according to the Death Penalty Information Center.