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Indiana executed a man convicted of killing his girlfriend’s two young children early Thursday, the first of three executions scheduled for the same day in the United States.
Jeffrey Weisheit, 50, was pronounced dead at 12:45 a.m. at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City after receiving a lethal injection, according to the Indiana Department of Corrections.
Florida and Alabama are expected to carry out executions later Thursday, which would mark the second time this year that three death row inmates have been executed on the same day.
The first day of this year occurred on August 13, when Oklahoma, Tennessee and Alabama executed three inmates within hours of each other.
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Jesse Guardado, Michael Taylor and Jeffrey Weisheit face execution on the same day. (Florida, Alabama and Indiana Departments of Corrections)
In Florida, Thursday’s execution would be the 19th in 2026 in the state, tying the record set last year. Alabama is preparing for its third execution of the year, while Indiana just carried out its first.
Jesse Guardado, 64, is to be executed in Florida after confessing and pleading guilty to fatally stabbing a 75-year-old woman who helped him find work and housing in 2004.
Guardado killed Jackie Malone in her home before stealing her jewelry box, $80 and other items to fund his drug addiction.
“Jesse Guardado accepted responsibility for the murder of Jackie Malone and has consistently expressed deep remorse. Florida should also accept responsibility for what she did to him as a child,” Grace Hanna, executive director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said in a statement, while urging the state to halt the execution.
Florida has ramped up executions as Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a series of execution orders since 2025. The state carried out a record 19 executions last year, more than under any other Florida governor in a single year since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Those executions represented about 40 percent of the 47 carried out nationwide in 2025.
Florida was also responsible for more than half of the 32 executions carried out nationwide before those scheduled for Thursday. In July, Florida executed two prisoners on the same day, marking the first double execution by a single state in nearly a decade.
In Alabama, Michael Taylor, 54, is to be executed for the 1991 murder of an elderly couple who were beaten to death with a metal bar during a robbery in their home. Authorities stopped Taylor in Birmingham, about an hour away, with the victims’ Cadillac.
Alabama authorities are considering executing Taylor by lethal injection after a judge ruled against his lawyers’ objections to the method. Taylor had previously requested an execution by nitrogen gas, and his lawyers sought to preserve that choice.
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Attorney Kacey Keeton speaks during an event November 2, 2026 at the Alabama Capitol in Montgomery, Alabama, to oppose the planned execution of Michael Taylor. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler)
Opponents of the death penalty urged Republican Gov. Kay Ivey to commute Taylor’s sentence to life in prison, arguing that he was too young and immature at 19 to fully appreciate the consequences of his actions.
“If the state kills Michael, it’s not the 19-year-old man who made the worst mistake of his life that it’s killing. It’s the mature, respected, God-fearing man sitting in this cell today,” Esther Brown of the Hope Project for the Abolition of the Death Penalty told the Associated Press.
Ivey rejected requests for clemency, paving the way for Taylor’s planned execution.
In Indiana, Weisheit was executed for starting a 2010 house fire that killed his girlfriend’s two children, ages 8 and 5, as the couple’s relationship deteriorated.
The lethal injection began shortly after midnight and Weisheit was pronounced dead at 12:45 a.m., according to Noelle Russell, communications manager for the Indiana Department of Corrections.
Weisheit requested barbecue ribs for his final meal and did not make a final statement, Russell said.
His lawyers requested permission to conduct additional brain scans, arguing that his history of head injuries and mental health problems warranted further examination. Republican Governor Mike Braun rejected the request.
Braun also rejected calls to commute Weisheit’s death sentence to life in prison.
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It would be the second time this year that three people were put to death on the same day. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Weisheit’s attorneys had also expressed separate concerns about Indiana’s planned use of execution drugs obtained from a pharmacy that will be the subject of a disciplinary hearing before the Indiana Pharmacy Board next week.
The Indiana Department of Corrections, however, said it was confident in its ability to carry out the execution humanely.
After the execution, Braun said Weisheit’s case was subject to repeated reviews in state and federal courts.
“These reviews have never resulted in a sentence being overturned,” Braun said in a statement. “Today Weisheit’s sentence was carried out as ordered by the court.”
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita also spoke out, saying the execution brought “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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The planned executions come amid renewed scrutiny of lethal injection procedures, following a failed execution attempt in Tennessee in September. Death row inmate Christa Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital and was rushed to the hospital. She has since returned to prison.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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