Indiana, Florida and Alabama executed three men on Thursday, marking the second time this year that three executions took place in the United States on the same day.
The previous triple execution occurred Aug. 13, when Oklahoma, Tennessee and Alabama put inmates to death within hours of one another. Before that, the last day with three U.S. executions was Jan. 7, 2010.
Indiana carried out the first execution Thursday, putting Jeffrey Weisheit, 50, to death for a 2010 house fire that killed his girlfriend’s children, ages 8 and 5. The fire occurred as the couple’s relationship was falling apart. Weisheit was pronounced dead at 12:45 a.m. after receiving a lethal injection at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City.
His lawyers had asked for further brain scans, citing his history of head injuries and mental health issues. Republican Gov. Mike Braun rejected that request, as well as appeals to change Weisheit’s sentence to life in prison.
Weisheit’s attorneys also questioned Indiana’s plan to use execution drugs supplied by a pharmacy that is scheduled to face a disciplinary hearing before the state Pharmacy Board next week. The Indiana Department of Correction said it was confident the execution could be carried out humanely.
Afterward, Braun said state and federal courts had repeatedly reviewed the case without overturning the sentence. He said the execution had been carried out in accordance with the court’s order.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita described the execution as long-awaited justice for Alyssa Lynch and her brother Caleb, saying the children had been killed in an act of extreme cruelty.
In Florida, Jesse Guardado, 64, was executed for the 2004 murder of Jackie Malone, a 75-year-old woman who had helped him find work and a place to live. Guardado pleaded guilty and confessed to stabbing Malone in her home, then taking her jewelry box, $80 and other belongings to support his drug addiction. He was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. after a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke.
The execution brought Florida to 19 for the year, matching the state’s record set last year. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a series of death warrants since 2025. Florida’s 19 executions last year exceeded the total carried out during any other Florida governor’s single year since the death penalty returned in 1976. They made up about 40% of the 47 executions nationwide in 2025.
Florida has accounted for more than half of the 35 executions carried out nationally so far this year, including Thursday’s. In July, the state executed two prisoners on the same day, the first time in nearly a decade that one state had carried out two executions in a day.
Alabama completed Thursday’s triple execution, putting Michael Taylor, 54, to death for the 1991 robbery and killings of Ivan and Lucille Moore. The couple were beaten with a metal bar in their home. Taylor was later caught in Birmingham, about an hour away, with their Cadillac.
Taylor was executed by lethal injection after a judge rejected his lawyers’ challenge to the method. He had previously asked to be executed using nitrogen gas, and his attorneys had sought to preserve that option.
In a statement, Taylor’s lawyers said he understood the damage he had caused and carried grief over it for the rest of his life. They also said he had changed during his time in prison and expressed hope that both families involved would find peace, while mourning his death.
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 crimes and too young and immature to fully grasp the consequences of his actions. Ivey declined to halt the execution, describing Taylor’s conduct as reprehensible.
Ivey said the Moores had welcomed Taylor into their home 35 years earlier, but he killed them with a metal bar to steal money for clothing and jewelry. The victims’ relatives thanked the state attorney general’s office for bringing the case to a close, while saying they were saddened that it had taken 35 years for the sentence to be carried out. They said the long appeals process had left the family living with years of waiting and uncertainty, but that they had never forgotten the couple or what they had lost.
The executions took place amid fresh scrutiny of lethal-injection procedures after a failed execution attempt in Tennessee. In late September, death row inmate Christa Pike reportedly remained alive after two doses of pentobarbital and was taken to a hospital. She has since been discharged and returned to prison.
Thursday also brought an announcement from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, who said he would seek to commute all 548 death sentences in the state to life in prison without parole. The proposed commutations for 382 people require a recommendation from the California Supreme Court. Newsom said he believes executions conflict with California’s values, weaken the foundations of the legal system and diminish society as a whole.
Newsom, who placed a moratorium on executions in California in 2019, said the state’s imperfect legal system cannot carry out executions while remaining faithful to its principles of justice and human decency.
