Three US executions in one day: Indiana, Florida and Alabama carry out death sentences
Indiana executed Jeffrey Weisheit early Thursday for killing two children; Florida and Alabama followed with two more executions the same day.
Three executions in a single day across Indiana, Florida and Alabama
Indiana put Jeffrey Weisheit to death shortly after midnight on Thursday, the first of three executions carried out across the United States on the same day, foxnews.com reports.
Weisheit, 50, was pronounced dead at 12:45 a.m. at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City following a lethal injection, according to Noelle Russell, chief communications officer for the Indiana Department of Correction. He had been convicted of setting a house fire in 2010 that killed his girlfriend's two young children — Alyssa Lynch, 8, and her brother Caleb, 5 — as the couple's relationship deteriorated.
Weisheit requested barbecue ribs for his last meal and made no final statement. His attorneys had sought permission for additional brain scans, citing a history of head injuries and mental health problems, but Republican Governor Mike Braun denied the request. Braun also rejected appeals to commute the sentence to life in prison.
Following the execution, Braun said the case had undergone repeated reviews in state and federal courts. "These reviews have never resulted in an overturned sentence," he said in a statement. "Today, Weisheit's sentence has been carried out as ordered by the court."
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said the execution delivered "long-awaited justice for Alyssa Lynch and her brother Caleb, two innocent children whose lives were stolen in an act of unspeakable cruelty."
Weisheit's lawyers had separately raised concerns about Indiana's use of execution drugs obtained from a pharmacy facing a disciplinary hearing before the Indiana Pharmacy Board. The Department of Correction maintained it was confident the execution would be carried out humanely.
Florida closes in on execution record
Later Thursday, Florida executed Jesse Guardado, 64, in what would be the state's 19th execution of 2026 — matching the record set the previous year. Guardado had confessed and pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing Jackie Malone, a 75-year-old woman who had helped him find employment and housing, inside her home in 2004. He stole her jewellery box, $80 and other items to fund his drug addiction.
Grace Hanna, executive director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, urged the state to halt the execution. "Jesse Guardado has accepted responsibility for killing Jackie Malone and has consistently expressed deep remorse. Florida should accept responsibility for what it did to him as a child, too," Hanna said in a statement.
Florida has significantly increased the pace of executions under Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who has signed a series of death warrants since 2025. The state's 19 executions last year were more than under any other Florida governor in a single year since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, accounting for roughly 40% of the 47 executions carried out nationwide that year. Florida has also accounted for more than half of the 32 executions conducted nationwide prior to Thursday's scheduled proceedings. In July, the state executed two prisoners on the same day — the first double execution by a single state in nearly a decade.
Alabama executes man for 1991 couple murders
In Alabama, Michael Taylor, 54, was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection for the 1991 murders of an elderly couple who were beaten to death with a metal bar during a robbery at their home. Authorities apprehended Taylor in Birmingham, approximately an hour away, in possession of the victims' Cadillac.
A judge had ruled against Taylor's attorneys' objections to lethal injection as the execution method. Taylor had previously requested execution by nitrogen gas, and his legal team sought to preserve that option.
Death penalty opponents called on Republican Governor Kay Ivey to commute Taylor's sentence to life in prison, arguing he had been 19 years old at the time of the killings and lacked the maturity to fully understand the consequences of his actions. "If the state kills Michael, it is not the 19-year-old who made the worst mistake of his life who it kills. But the mature, well-respected, God-fearing man sitting in that cell today," said Esther Brown of Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty, speaking to The Associated Press.
Ivey rejected the clemency requests, clearing the way for Taylor's execution — Alabama's third of 2026.
Second triple-execution day of the year
Thursday marked the second time in 2026 that three death row inmates were put to death on the same day in the United States. The first such occasion was 13 August, when Oklahoma, Tennessee and Alabama each carried out executions within hours of one another.
The triple execution comes amid renewed scrutiny of lethal injection procedures following a failed attempt in Tennessee in September, when death row inmate Christa Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital and was rushed to hospital.
Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)