Indiana executed a man early Thursday who admitted setting the fire that killed two children, marking the first of three lethal injections scheduled in the United States that day.
Jeffrey Weisheit was convicted of starting the 2010 blaze at an Evansville-area home, killing his girlfriend’s children, ages 8 and 5. Investigators said the murders appeared to stem from the couple’s collapsing relationship.
Weisheit was put to death at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, said Noelle Russell, chief communications officer for the Indiana Department of Correction.
Russell said Weisheit was pronounced dead at 12:45 a.m. and did not make a final statement.
His last meal consisted of barbecue ribs, according to Russell. Indiana does not permit media witnesses at executions.
Executions were also scheduled in Florida and Alabama, potentially making it only the second day this year on which three people were put to death in the United States.
The death penalty has drawn fresh scrutiny after Tennessee’s botched execution of Christa Pike. Courts have nevertheless rejected attempts to stop other executions since Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital last month.
Florida’s execution would be the 19th carried out under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis this year, matching the state’s record from 2025. Indiana, by contrast, has used the death penalty far less often, and Thursday’s execution was its first of the year.
Indiana lawyers sought life sentence for Weisheit
Attorneys for the 50-year-old Weisheit asked Republican Gov. Mike Braun to permit brain scans, hoping to strengthen their claims that Weisheit had suffered head injuries and experienced mental health problems.
Braun refused the request and rejected a separate appeal to commute Weisheit’s death sentence to life in prison.
Weisheit’s most recent legal challenge focused on the lethal drugs Indiana planned to use. The medication was obtained from a pharmacy scheduled to face a disciplinary hearing before the Indiana Pharmacy Board the following week.
The Indiana Department of Correction said it was confident “in our ability to humanely carry out” the execution.
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Florida nears another record number of executions
Jesse Guardado confessed and pleaded guilty soon after being accused of fatally stabbing a 75-year-old woman in her Walton County home in 2004. Prosecutors said he stole her jewelry box, $80 and other valuables to support his drug addiction.
The woman had previously helped Guardado find work and secure housing.
A federal appeals court ruled in 2024 that Guardado, now 64, had received a “full and fair” hearing during the sentencing phase of his capital case.
Florida has accounted for more than half of the 32 executions carried out in the United States so far this year.
DeSantis, who is scheduled to leave office in January, has said he wants to deliver justice to families who have waited for decades to see death sentences carried out.
Alabama prepares to execute man convicted at 19
Michael Taylor, 54, is scheduled to be executed in Alabama, 35 years after he fatally beat an older couple with a metal bar during a robbery at their Gadsden home.
Police arrested Taylor, who was 19 at the time, about an hour away in Birmingham while he was driving the victims’ Cadillac.
If carried out, the execution would be Alabama’s third this year.
Opponents of capital punishment asked Republican Gov. Kay Ivey to commute Taylor’s sentence to life in prison, citing his age and immaturity when the killings occurred. Ivey declined.
“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.
Alabama plans to execute Taylor by lethal injection after a judge ruled the state’s proposed nitrogen gas method unconstitutional.
Taylor’s attorneys objected to the last-minute change because he had selected nitrogen gas as his preferred method several years ago. A judge, however, ruled against him.
