The Oklahoma State Penitentiary is about to log its busiest month ever. But not even the scheduling of eight executions has caused much stir in this state, where most residents favor the death penalty.

 As Don Trolinger, a retiree in northeast Oklahoma, put it, "I think sometimes you have to look at the victims and say, `How else are they going to get justice?' "  Nationwide, there are more than 3,700 people on death row. Texas set an executions record last year with 40; Oklahoma was second with 11. Seven men and one woman are scheduled to be put to death this month in Oklahoma, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington. Factors in the increase include a shortened appeals process and some inmates' lengthy stays on death row: five have been there for more than 11 years.

 Johnnie Cabrera, chairwoman of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, has found little outcry. "People really don't care," Ms. Cabrera said.  Ms. Cabrera has a personal interest in one death row inmate, Floyd Medlock, and planned to be at the prison on Jan. 16, his execution date. She is the grandmother of Katherine Ann Busch, who in 1990, at age 7, was stabbed to death by Mr. Medlock.  The execution pace has opponents speaking out. State leaders of Roman Catholic, Episcopal and United Methodist churches have called for a death penalty moratorium