Miami, Florida - A Florida man convicted of murdering a woman during a robbery is to be put to death by lethal injection on Tuesday, one of two executions scheduled in the US this week.

Mark Geralds (58) is to be executed at 6:00 PM ET at the Florida state prison in Raiford after abandoning legal appeals against his death sentence.

Geralds was convicted of the 1989 murder of Tressa Pettibone (33), who was beaten and stabbed to death in her home.

Justice Judge blocks DOJ's attempt to seek new indictment against James Comey

Pettibone's eight-year-old son found her body when he returned home from school.

Florida has carried out 17 executions this year, more than any other state.

There have been five each in Alabama and Texas.

Tennessee is scheduled to carry out its third execution of the year on Thursday. Harold Nichols (64) is to be executed by lethal injection at a state prison in Nashville for the rape and murder of Karen Pulley (20).

There have been 44 executions in the US this year, the most since 2010, when 46 inmates were put to death.

Thirty-six of this year's executions have been carried out by lethal injection. Three have been executed by firing squad and five by nitrogen hypoxia, a method that 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.