Three US inmates executed on same day for first time in 16 years
Oklahoma, Tennessee and Alabama each carried out a lethal injection on 13 August, the first triple execution day in the US since 2010. The three men were put to death for the murders of women and girls.
Triple execution day in the US: three states put inmates to death within hours
Oklahoma, Tennessee and Alabama each carried out a lethal injection on Thursday, 13 August, marking the first triple execution day in the United States in 16 years, usatoday.com reports.
Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez was pronounced dead in Oklahoma at 10:13 a.m. CT, followed thirty minutes later by Anthony Hines in Tennessee at 10:43 a.m. CT. Jeremy Williams was executed in Alabama later that evening, pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m. CT. All three were killed by lethal injection.
The last time three states carried out executions on the same calendar day was in 2010, when Ohio, Texas and Louisiana each executed an inmate. "It's very unusual," said Robin Maher, executive director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center. Death penalty observers describe the coincidence of double or triple execution days as a matter of timing, not coordination.
Alabama: Jeremy Williams executed for the rape and murder of a 5-year-old
Williams, 42, was put to death for the 2021 rape and murder of Kamarie Holland, a 5-year-old girl from Columbus City, Georgia. On 13 December 2021, Williams took Kamarie from her home after agreeing to pay the girl's own mother, Kristy Siple, to sexually abuse her. Police say Siple wanted the money to buy drugs.
Williams subjected Kamarie to severe abuse, including forcing her to smoke methamphetamine, raping her while filming the assault, strangling her, and continuing to sexually abuse her after she died. He was convicted in 2024 of murder, sodomy, sexual abuse of a child, production of obscene material involving a child, human trafficking and abuse of a corpse. Siple is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to human sex trafficking of her daughter.
Unlike most criminal defendants, Williams directed his attorneys to present no defence at trial and ordered them not to appeal his death sentence — which is why he was executed just five years after the crime rather than after the decades-long appeals process typical for death row inmates.
Williams never expressed remorse. "His words were that he was just sick, and that's it," Lt. Jane Edenfield of the Columbus Police Department told usatoday.com.
Kamarie's father, Corey Holland, who had full custody of the girl but had sometimes allowed her to stay with her mother, testified at the trial in tears. "You took my little girl from me," Edenfield recalls him telling Williams, who sat emotionless throughout the proceedings. Holland had always called Kamarie his Princess.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey said in a statement: "There are few words to adequately describe the depth and depravity of Jeremy Williams' evil act. Kamarie Holland is an innocent girl who is no longer with us, but she finally received justice tonight."
Oklahoma: Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez executed for the 2003 murder of his common-law wife
Cuesta-Rodriguez was put to death for the murder of Olimpia Fisher, 43, who had been looking forward to becoming a grandmother when she was killed. In the weeks before the murder, Cuesta-Rodriguez's behaviour had grown increasingly obsessive and controlling; he stalked Fisher and was fixated on the belief that she was having an affair with a co-worker.
On the night of 31 May 2003, Fisher and her pregnant 18-year-old daughter had packed their bags to leave the Oklahoma City home they shared with Cuesta-Rodriguez. They decided to stay the night after finding him asleep in bed following a bottle of tequila. He woke around 4:30 a.m. and confronted Fisher with accusations of infidelity. As her daughter watched, he shot Fisher in the right eye. Eight minutes later, as police attempted to force entry and a still-living Fisher tried to escape, he shot her in the left eye. She bled out on the floor.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said after the execution that he prays Fisher's family "finds some measure of peace after enduring 23 years of unimaginable grief."
Tennessee: Anthony Hines executed for a 1985 murder
Anthony Hines was executed for the 1985 murder of a mother of four. He was pronounced dead at 10:43 a.m. CT in Nashville.
Broader context: executions accelerating in 2025 and 2026
All three men executed on Thursday had killed women or girls — consistent with a broader pattern identified by usatoday.com. Of 94 executions carried out since 2024 including Thursday's, 64% of the victims were women or girls, according to a USA Today analysis of Death Penalty Information Center data.
So far in 2026, five states have executed 22 death row inmates, with at least a dozen more executions expected before the year's end. In 2025, 47 inmates were executed across the United States — more than in any year since 2009.
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This article contains references to domestic abuse and child sexual violence. If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, contact the National Domestic Abuse Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or visit thehotline.org.
Source: Google News MT