Three inmates face execution in same day across three states

Three men will be put to death by state authorities on Thursday, marking the second occasion this year that multiple executions have occurred within a single 24-hour period in the United States. The scheduled killings are set to take place in Florida and Alabama, following an early morning execution in Indiana.

Indiana prison officials confirmed that Jeffrey Weisheit, 50, was pronounced dead at 12:45 a.m. at the state prison in Michigan City. Noelle Russell, a spokesperson for the Indiana Department of Correction, stated that Weisheit ate barbecue ribs for his final meal and offered no final words. Weisheit had acknowledged killing his girlfriend’s two children in a house fire near Evansville in 2010. He sought clemency from Republican Gov. Mike Braun, hoping to have his sentence reduced to life in prison, but Braun declined the request.

Florida will execute Jesse Guardado, 64, later in the day. Guardado confessed to fatally stabbing a 75-year-old woman in her Walton County home in 2004. He stole her jewelry box, $80, and other valuables to purchase drugs. The victim had previously helped Guardado secure employment and housing. A federal appeals court ruled in 2024 that Guardado received a full and fair hearing during the penalty phase of his trial. This execution would be Florida’s 19th this year under Gov. Ron DeSantis, matching the state’s record set in 2025.

Alabama will execute Michael Taylor, 54, by lethal injection. In 1991, then 19-year-old Taylor fatally beat two adults, aged 83 and 79, with a metal bar during a robbery in their home in Gadsden. Police found him an hour later in Birmingham with the victims’ Cadillac. Death penalty opponents urged Gov. Kay Ivey to grant clemency, citing Taylor’s youth at the time of the crime. Ivey denied the petition. Esther Brown of Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty noted that the state would be killing a mature man rather than the 19-year-old who committed the act.

Taylor’s legal team objected to the switch from nitrogen gas to lethal injection, arguing that he had selected nitrogen gas as his execution method years ago. A judge ruled against Taylor after declaring the nitrogen gas method unconstitutional. His attorneys had previously attempted to change the method but were unsuccessful.

The recent sequence of executions follows the September failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee, where the inmate survived two doses of pentobarbital. Courts have since rejected efforts to pause other executions citing Pike’s case. Florida has carried out more than half of the 32 executions performed in the U.S. so far this year. DeSantis, who will leave office in January, stated his goal is to bring justice to families who have waited decades for sentences to be carried out.

In Indiana, Weisheit’s lawyers failed to convince Gov. Braun to allow brain scans that would support an argument regarding his history of head injuries and mental health issues. Weisheit’s final legal objection focused on the state’s use of lethal drugs from a pharmacy currently facing a disciplinary hearing at the Indiana Pharmacy Board. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said the execution provided long-awaited justice for Alyssa Lynch and her brother Caleb, the two children killed in the 2010 fire.

The executions in Florida and Alabama are scheduled to occur hours after the Indiana execution concluded. Both Florida and Alabama have finalized their procedures for Thursday’s capital punishments. The three states have completed their respective administrative steps for the day’s scheduled deaths.