Indiana, Florida and Alabama each carried out an execution Thursday, marking the second time this year that three U.S. inmates were put to death on the same day.
The year’s first triple execution occurred Aug. 13, when Oklahoma, Tennessee and Alabama executed inmates within hours of one another. Before that, the most recent day on which three executions took place nationwide was Jan. 7, 2010.
Indiana conducted the first execution Thursday, putting Jeffrey Weisheit, 50, to death for starting a 2010 house fire that killed his girlfriend’s children, an 8-year-old and a 5-year-old, as the couple’s relationship fell apart. Weisheit was pronounced dead at 12:45 a.m. at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City after receiving a lethal injection.
His attorneys had asked for permission to conduct additional brain scans, citing his history of head injuries and mental health problems. Republican Gov. Mike Braun rejected that request, as well as appeals to reduce Weisheit’s death sentence to life in prison.
Jesse Guardado, Michael Taylor and Jeffrey Weisheit were executed on the same day Thursday. (Florida, Alabama and Indiana Departments of Corrections)
Weisheit’s lawyers also questioned Indiana’s planned use of execution drugs obtained from a pharmacy scheduled to face a disciplinary hearing before the Indiana Pharmacy Board next week.
The Indiana Department of Correction said it remained confident the execution could be conducted “humanely.” Afterward, Braun said Weisheit’s case had been repeatedly reviewed by state and federal courts.
“These reviews have never resulted in an overturned sentence,” Braun 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.”
In Florida, Jesse Guardado, 64, was executed after confessing to and pleading guilty to fatally stabbing Jackie Malone, a 75-year-old woman who had helped him obtain a job and housing in 2004. Guardado killed Malone in her home, then stole her jewelry box, $80 and other belongings to support his drug addiction.
Guardado was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. after receiving a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke.
The execution brought Florida’s total for the year to 19 inmates, matching the state’s record for executions in a single year.
Florida has accelerated its use of the death penalty after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a series of death warrants beginning in 2025. The state carried out more executions last year than under any other Florida governor in a single year since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Florida’s 19 executions represented roughly 40% of the 47 carried out nationwide in 2025.
Florida’s latest execution matched last year’s state record total of 19 inmates put to death in a single year. (AP Photo/Curt Anderson, file)
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The Sunshine State has accounted for more than half of the 35 executions carried out nationwide, including Thursday’s three. In July, Florida executed two prisoners on the same day, marking the first double execution by one state in nearly a decade.
Alabama completed the day’s triple execution by putting Michael Taylor, 54, to death for the 1991 killings of an older couple. The victims were beaten with a metal bar during a robbery at their home. Authorities later found Taylor in Birmingham, about an hour away, driving the couple’s Cadillac.
Taylor was executed by lethal injection after a judge rejected his attorneys’ challenge to the method. He had previously requested nitrogen gas, and his lawyers sought to preserve that option.
His attorneys said Taylor “knew the depth of the harm he caused” and “grieved it for the rest of his life.” They said he changed during his years in prison, adding, “Michael’s life was proof that God isn’t finished with any of us. Tonight we pray that both families find peace, and we deeply mourn the loss of Michael.”
Death penalty opponents had asked Republican Gov. Kay Ivey to commute Taylor’s sentence to life in prison. They argued that he was only 19 at the time of the crime and too young and immature to fully grasp the consequences of his actions.
Ivey declined to halt the execution. In a statement Thursday night, the governor described Taylor’s conduct as “reprehensible.”
“Thirty-five years ago yesterday, Ivan and Lucille Moore kindly opened their home to Michael Taylor. Mr. Taylor repaid the Moores by beating them to death with a metal bar, all to rob them for money to buy clothing and jewelry,” she said.
The victims’ family thanked the state attorney general’s office for helping bring the case to a close but said it was painful to wait 35 years for the death sentence to be carried out.
The first triple execution this year took place Aug. 13, when Oklahoma, Tennessee and Alabama executed three inmates within hours of each other. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler)
“We know that a person has the right to appeal, but there should come a time when the jury’s decision is final. For all these years, our family has had to live with the waiting, the delays, and the uncertainty,” the statement said. “We have never forgotten our loved ones or what was taken from us.”
The executions occurred as lethal injection procedures face renewed scrutiny after a failed execution attempt in Tennessee. Death row inmate Christa Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital and was taken to a hospital in late September. She has since left the hospital and returned to prison.
The executions also took place the same day California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a plan to seek commutations for all 548 death sentences in the state, converting them to life without parole. However, 382 of those commutations require a recommendation from the California Supreme Court. Newsom said he believes “state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values, undermines the foundations of our legal system, and diminishes each of us.”
Newsom, who imposed a moratorium on executions in California in 2019, said he “knew we cannot execute people in our imperfect legal system and remain true to our core values, the first among them justice and human decency.”
