Florida, Alabama and Indiana each carried out an execution on Thursday, ending the lives of three convicted killers on the same day California Governor Gavin Newsom announced plans to commute all 548 death sentences in the state before he leaves office.
The rare concentration of executions, alongside Newsom’s proposal—described by experts as potentially the largest mass clemency action in U.S. history—highlighted the country’s deep divide over capital punishment.
The developments also come amid renewed scrutiny of the death penalty after Tennessee’s September execution of Christa Pike went seriously wrong.
Florida matched its annual record with its 19th execution of 2025 and is expected to establish a new state high in the weeks ahead.
Indiana executed a man convicted of killing two children in a 2010 house fire, while Alabama put a man to death for murdering an elderly couple during a home invasion.
‘California may let their criminals escape justice, but not Alabama,’ Republican Governor Kay Ivey said. ‘Here, we enforce the law and always will.’
Thursday marked only the second occasion since August on which three states conducted executions on the same day. Before that, the last such occurrence had been in 2010.
Jesse Guardado was pronounced dead at 6.13pm after receiving a lethal injection at a state prison in Starke, Florida.
Jesse Guardado was declared dead at 6.13pm Thursday after his lethal injection at the Florida prison in Starke
Ron DeSantis, who leaves office in January, has said he wants to deliver justice to victims’ relatives who have waited for decades for death sentences to be carried out
Police and corrections vehicles outside the Florida state prison in Starke, shown in a file photograph
Guardado had admitted fatally stabbing 75-year-old Jackie Malone at her Walton County home in 2004, then taking her jewelry box, $80 and other belongings to fund his drug use. Malone had previously helped him find employment and a place to live.
Under outgoing Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, Florida has accounted for more than half of the 35 executions carried out nationwide this year.
The 64-year-old was secured to a gurney with an IV already in place when the death-chamber curtain opened at 6pm.
When asked whether he wished to make a final statement, Guardado said: ‘I would like to once again apologize for the pain and suffering I’ve caused to the victim’s family and my own family as well.’
The lethal drugs were administered immediately afterward.
Guardado began taking heavy breaths before sputtering and twitching.
A warden later shook him and called his name. When Guardado did not respond, a medic confirmed his death.
DeSantis, whose term ends in January, has said the executions are intended to provide justice for victims’ families, many of whom have spent decades waiting for sentences to be carried out.
Michael Taylor was put to death by lethal injection in Alabama for the killings of an elderly couple during a home robbery
Attorney Kacey Keeton speaks Monday at the Alabama Capitol in Montgomery during a protest against Michael Taylor’s scheduled execution
He approved the death warrants that produced a state record of 19 executions in 2025. Alabama has two additional executions scheduled before the year ends.
Patrick Malone, the son of one of the victims, said he struggled to understand the position of those who oppose capital punishment.
‘Do such people ever think about what happened to the victim or consider the unending aftermath the victim’s family endures and relives every time that terrible event comes up?’ Malone said.
In Alabama, 54-year-old Michael Taylor was pronounced dead at 6.10pm local time following a lethal injection.
The execution began shortly before 6pm. Asked for his final words, Taylor answered, ‘no, sir.’
He appeared to mouth ‘thank you’ to his lawyers, who were seated in the witness room.
Taylor’s spiritual adviser prayed beside him before he closed his eyes and died.
The entrance to Alabama’s W.C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, shown in a file image
Governor Kay Ivey called the double killing ‘reprehensible’ and said the elderly couple had welcomed Taylor into their home before he attacked them
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Taylor was 19 in 1991 when he beat 83-year-old Ivan Moore and his 79-year-old wife, Lucille, to death with a metal bar during a robbery at their Gadsden home.
He was arrested about an hour away in Birmingham while driving the couple’s Cadillac.
Ivey described the murders as ‘reprehensible,’ saying the couple had opened their home to Taylor before he turned on them.
The governor said Taylor killed them to obtain money for clothes and jewelry.
Death penalty opponents asked Ivey to reduce the sentence to life imprisonment, pointing to Taylor’s youth and immaturity at the time of the crimes. She refused.
The victims’ relatives thanked the state attorney general’s office for securing what they called closure, while also expressing sadness that 35 years had passed before the sentence was carried out.
‘We know that a person has the right to appeal, but there should come a time when the jury’s decision is final,’ the family said in a statement.
‘For all these years, our family has had to live with the waiting, the delays, and the uncertainty,’ the statement continued. ‘We have never forgotten our loved ones or what was taken from us.’
Alabama changed the method of execution after a judge ruled that nitrogen gas was unconstitutional.
Taylor had selected nitrogen gas as his preferred method years earlier, and his lawyers objected to the switch. A judge rejected their challenge.
Taylor’s attorneys said he understood the damage he had caused, adding that ‘Michael’s life was proof that God isn’t finished with any of us.’
Jeffrey Weisheit was executed by lethal injection for killing eight-year-old Alyssa Lynch and her five-year-old brother, Caleb Lynch
Alyssa and Caleb Lynch were killed by Weisheit in Indiana in 2010
Eight-year-old Alyssa Lynch and her five-year-old brother Caleb were trapped when Weisheit set their home on fire
In Indiana, 50-year-old Jeffrey Weisheit was pronounced dead at 12.45am at the state prison in Michigan City, Department of Correction spokesperson Noelle Russell said.
His final meal was barbecue ribs, and he did not make a final statement.
Weisheit had acknowledged killing his girlfriend’s children in a 2010 house fire near Evansville. He had asked Governor Mike Braun to commute his death sentence to life in prison, but Braun declined.
After the execution, Braun said the case had been repeatedly examined by state and federal courts, none of which overturned Weisheit’s conviction or sentence.
‘Today, Weisheit’s sentence has been carried out as ordered by the court,’ Braun said.
The victims, eight-year-old Alyssa Lynch and her five-year-old brother Caleb, were unable to escape the burning house.
Investigators found Alyssa’s body inside a closet and Caleb’s on a mattress, with duct tape around him. A railroad flare was found in his underwear and another beneath his body.
The ruins of Lisa Lynch’s northern Vanderburgh County home after Jeffrey Weisheit set it ablaze on April 10, 2010
The remaining structure of the house where Alyssa and Caleb died in the fire while their mother’s boyfriend was caring for them
A roadside memorial at Weisheit’s former property, one of two tributes created after the children’s deaths
The blaze was so severe that cadaver dogs needed several hours to find the children’s remains in the burned-out home
The children’s mother, Lisa Lynch, was working when the fire started. She had left Alyssa and Caleb in Weisheit’s care, while investigators said the relationship between the adults had been deteriorating.
In court, Lisa described Alyssa as a creative child who loved drawing pictures of her family. Caleb, she said, loved hugs, helping in the kitchen, and playing with trucks and trains.
‘Every birthday, every holiday, every landmark moment is marked by their agonizing absence,’ she said.
‘Time passes but the weight of losing them never fades. They will always be my children.’
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.’
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