It's easy to forget that the United States shares one thing in particular with Saudi Arabia, China, Pakistan, Iran and Iraq: they all continue to have death penalty.
But while the country was lauded last year for having 'only' 20 executions (the lowest since 1991), figures reveal prisons around the U.S this year have already notched the same amount, and it's only October.
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Tonight, however, a Texas death row inmate is scheduled to become this year's 21st execution, officially surpassing last year's tally.
The Associated Press reports that Anthony Allen Shore, who was known as the 'Tourniquet Killer', is expected to receive the lethal injection.
He killed four women, a 21-year-old, two teenagers and a nine-year-old, and even called a local television station to tip them off about a 'serial killer on the loose'.
Credit: Texas Department of Criminal Justice
Capital punishment is legal in 31 US states and some of the statistics around the sentence are harrowing.
Texas tops the list for the most amount of executions since 1976, with 544, followed by Virginia with 113 and Oklahoma comes in third at 112, according the Death Penalty Information Center.
Credit: PA
Lethal injection is the primary form of execution, with 1,287 people having died by that method. However, since 1976, 158 have been electrocuted, 11 via gas chambers, three by hanging and another three through firing squad.
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The number of death sentences has dropped dramatically over the past two decades, with 295 people placed on death row die in 1998, compared with 31 last year.
Despite Texas completing the most amount of executions, California has the highest number of inmates on death penalty sentences with 744. That's nearly double than second place, Florida, who have 386 people waiting to die while Texas has 247.
Caucasians make up 55.8 percent of prisoners who are executed, followed by African Americans at 34.4 percent, Hispanic on 8.2 percent and 1.6 percent for other. However, race can have a big impact for a defendant in the court room.
Delaware Prison lethal injection control board. Credit: Creative Commons/David
A 2014 study found: "Jurors in Washington state are three times more likely to recommend a death sentence for a black defendant than for a white defendant in a similar case."
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In Louisiana, the odds of a death sentence are 97 percent higher if the victim is white rather than black.
Last year, America ranked seventh in the most amount of executions, with China claiming the top spot, followed by Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan.
Among the 23 countries who carried out death sentences in 2016, it's estimated that around 1,032 people died, however that figure doesn't include China because the Asian country doesn't release specific numbers.
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Sources: Associated Press
Topics: execution, Texas, Death Penalty, US News, california