The number of executions and public support for the death penalty has been in decline in the USA for decades, but this week has bucked the trend. | ITV National News

Death row inmates in five states are scheduled to be put to death in the span of one week, an unusually high number of executions that defies a yearslong trend of decline in both the use and support of the death penalty in the U.

"Two on a single day is unusual, and four on two days in the same week is also very unusual," said Robin Maher of the Death Penalty Information Center.