"Mississippi executes sixth inmate this year," is the AFP report.
Mississippi executed its sixth death row inmate this year, overtaking Texas as the US state that has put the most inmates to death so far in 2012, authorities said.
Gary Carl Simmons, 49, was put to death by lethal injection at 6:16 pm, prison officials said.
And:
Simmons was the 22nd death row inmate to be executed in the United States this year, 17 of whom were in the southern United States.
With Simmons' execution, Mississippi now leads Texas in the number of death row inmates put to death this year.
Mississippi Public Broadcasting posts, "Mississippi Executes Its Sixth Death Row Inmate Of 2012," by Jeffrey Hess.
There is the potential for additional executions later this year, if the Supreme Court rejects any more appeals before its session which finishes at the end of the month.
To date, Texas has executed five men this year. Currently, according to TDCJ, seven executions have been scheduled by Texas district courts for 2012; more could be added during the year. Once again, Texas will almost certainly lead the nation in the number of executions this year.
Texas has carried out 482 of the nation's 1,299 post-Furman excutions since 1977. That's more than 37% of all the executions in America's death penalty states.
But it is also true that the number of death sentences and executions have generally been declining over the past decade, even in Texas. Since Texas passed the sentence of life without parole in 2005, death sentences have dropped significantly.
This moment of a state other than Texas executing the largest number of people in America is clearly a snapshot that does not tell the complete story. But it also focuses us on the reality that the death penalty is largely a factor of southern culture.
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