Mississippi is set to carry out its 20th execution by lethal injection as Richard Jordan, who's sat on death row for 48 years, faces death this week.

For the past five years, no more than 24 executions occurred annually — but 2025 is already near that mark, with more scheduled in the months ahead.

Despite the associated blood and gore, the firing squad — condemned inmates like himself were told — offered a quick, sure and less-agonizing death than the state's alternatives of lethal injection ...