Houston, Texas - A Texas man who stabbed his girlfriend and her eight-year-old son to death was executed by lethal injection on Wednesday.

Cedric Ricks (51) was sentenced to death in 2014 for the murders the previous year of Roxann Sanchez (30) and Anthony Figueroa, her son from a previous marriage.

Ricks also attacked Sanchez's 12-year-son Marcus, but he survived more than two dozen stab wounds by feigning death and testified against him at trial.

Ricks was pronounced deceased at 7:55 PM ET, a statement from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said.

Five other executions have been carried out in the US this year – three in Florida, one in Texas, and one in Oklahoma.

An Alabama man had been scheduled to be executed on Thursday, but the governor of the southern state commuted his sentence on Tuesday to life in prison without parole.

Charles Burton (75) was sentenced to death although he did not pull the trigger in the 1991 shooting for which he was convicted.

Republican Governor Kay Ivey said it would be "unjust" to execute Burton as he was outside the building when his accomplice shot dead a man during a robbery.

There were 47 executions in the US last year, the most since 2009, when 52 people were put to death.