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Paul Everette Woodward, 62, was executed on Wednesday and Gerald James Holland, 72, on Thursday.
"We can expect to see more executions," State Attorney General Jim Hood told The Clarion-Ledger on Friday.
Mississippi has not executed more than two people in any year since 1961, when five inmates were put to death.
Hood said changes made during the administration of President Clinton have allowed appeals to move faster. And a 2008 Supreme Court decision in a Kentucky case that upheld lethal injection procedures played a big role in speeding up executions in Mississippi and other states.
Death row inmate Joseph Burns' petition for appeal is now before the U.S. Supreme Court. Hood expects the court to decide whether to hear Burns' appeal June 30.
If the court declines, the state will immediately ask the Mississippi Supreme Court to set an execution date.
"We expect that to be the latter part of July," Hood said.
Burns, 42, was sentenced in Lee County in September 1996 for the November 1994 robbery
and murder of motel clerk Mike McBride. Burns spent the stolen cash in a casino.
Two others have have rehearing petitions before the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. That means the court decided against hearing their initial appeals. If that court doesn't change its earlier ruling, the inmates' only hopes lie with the U.S. Supreme Court.
You do however, have one thing wrong.
Prisons and the death penalty are about PUNISHMENT, not deterrence. People receive sentences to punish them for the crimes they themselves commit, not to use them as "examples" to deter others from committing those crimes.
Deterrence is often a positive side-effect, but the purpose of the system is to punish offenders for their crimes.
That's why it's called "capital punishment" and not "capital deterrence". ;)
Just a quick question. Was the person, who was undoubtly innocent and was killed, put to sleep before their life was stopped?
Why are the taxpayers of Mississippi being forced to bear the burden of paying for these people to be in prison while they exhaust all possibilities of getting away with their crime?
Why are these convicted felons on death row sitting there for anywhere from 15 to 25 years?
what happened to our prisons having a prison farm and the inmates providing for themselves?
I was always under the impression that prison was used as a deterent to committing a crime, well boys and girls, it ain't working.
These are just some thoughts to ponder on a beautiful Monday morning.