Convicted murderers Michael Samra (L), 41, and Donnie Edward Johnson (R), 68, are to be executed in Alabama and Tennessee respectively (HO)

Washington (AFP) – A Tennessee man who has spent 35 years on death row for the murder of his wife and an Alabama man sentenced to die for a quadruple murder committed when he was a teenager are be executed on Thursday.

Donnie Edward Johnson, 68, was convicted in 1984 of murdering his wife, Connie Johnson, in Memphis, Tennessee, by stuffing a plastic garbage bag down her throat and suffocating her.

Michael Brandon Samra, 41, was convicted in 1998 for his involvement in the murders of Randy Duke, Duke’s girlfriend Dedra Mims Hunt, and Hunt’s six-year-old and seven-year-old daughters.

Samra, who is described as being of “borderline intelligence” in court documents, was 19 years old at the time of the 1997 murders in Pelham, Alabama.

He carried out the slayings with Duke’s 16-year-old son, Mark Duke, who was angry because his father had denied him the use of his truck.

Randy Duke and Dedra Mims Hunt were shot to death while the two young girls had their throats slit.

Mark Duke was also sentenced to death but his sentence was changed to life in prison after the US Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that offenders who were under 18 years old at the time of their crimes should not be executed.

Samra had appealed his death sentence on the grounds that the death penalty should not be applied to offenders who were under 21 years old at the time of their crimes but the Supreme Court has so far declined to raise the age.

Both men are scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection.

There have been five executions in the United States this year, three in Texas, one in Georgia and one in Alabama.

Disclaimer: Validity of the above story is for 7 Days from original date of publishing. Source: AFP.