Oklahoma executes US man for 2006 double murder

A 45-year-old man convicted of a double murder was put to death by lethal injection in Oklahoma on Thursday, the third execution in the United States this year.

Kendrick Simpson was pronounced dead at 10:19 am Central Time (1619 GMT) at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, prison officials said.

A spiritual adviser was in the death chamber when the execution was carried out, they said.

Simpson was sentenced to death for killing Glen Palmer, 20, and Anthony Jones, 19, following an argument at a nightclub in Oklahoma City in 2006.

He fired more than 20 bullets from an assault rifle into their car. A third man who was in the vehicle survived the shooting.

Originally from Louisiana, Simpson moved to Oklahoma in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina devastated his home town, New Orleans.

There have been two previous executions in the United States this year, one in Texas and one in Florida.

There were 47 executions in the United States last year, the most since 2009, when 52 inmates were put to death.

Florida carried out the most executions in 2025 -- 19 -- followed by Alabama, South Carolina and Texas, where there were five each.

Thirty-nine of last year's executions were carried out by lethal injection.

Three were by firing squad and five by nitrogen hypoxia, which involves pumping nitrogen gas into a face mask, causing the prisoner to suffocate.

The use of nitrogen gas as a method of capital punishment has been denounced by United Nations experts as cruel and inhumane.

The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others -- California, Oregon and Pennsylvania -- have moratoriums in place.

President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment and has called for an expansion of its use "for the vilest crimes."