Three executions were scheduled in the US on the same day after Indiana put Jeffrey Weisheit to death for killing his girlfriend’s two children in a house fire.
Weisheit, 50, was executed at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City shortly after midnight on Thursday. He was pronounced dead at 12.45am, according to the Indiana Department of Correction.
The children, Alyssa Lynch and her five-year-old brother Caleb, were eight and five when Weisheit set fire to their mother’s home in the Evansville area in 2010. His final meal was barbecue ribs, and officials said he had no final words.
Florida and Alabama were also due to carry out executions later on Thursday. It would be the second time this year that three people had been put to death in the US on the same day, after executions in Alabama, Tennessee and Oklahoma on August 13.
Indiana Governor Mike Braun rejected requests for clemency and declined to allow Weisheit to undergo brain scans. His lawyers had argued that he had a history of head injuries and mental health problems.
Weisheit’s lawyers also challenged Indiana’s planned use of lethal drugs obtained from a pharmacy facing a disciplinary hearing before the Indiana Pharmacy Board next week. The Department of Correction said it was confident in its ability to carry out the execution humanely.
Afterwards, Mr Braun said Weisheit’s case had been reviewed repeatedly by state and federal courts.
“These reviews have never resulted in an overturned sentence,” he said. “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.”
Executions scheduled in Florida and Alabama
In Florida, Jesse Guardado was due to be executed for the 2004 murder of a 75-year-old woman in Walton County. He confessed and pleaded guilty to stabbing her in her home before stealing jewellery, cash and other valuables to support his drug habit.
The woman had helped Guardado find work and 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 case.
The execution would be Florida’s 19th this year under Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, matching the record set by the state in 2025. Florida has carried out more than half of the 32 executions in the US so far this year.
Alabama was due to execute Michael Taylor, 54, for killing an older couple during a robbery at their home in Gadsden 35 years ago. Taylor, who was 19 at the time, was arrested in Birmingham with the victims’ Cadillac.
Death penalty opponents had asked Governor Kay Ivey to commute his sentence to life in prison, pointing to his age and immaturity when the killings took place. She refused.
“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.
Taylor was due to be executed by lethal injection after a judge ruled that Alabama’s planned nitrogen gas method was unconstitutional. His lawyers objected to the change, saying he had selected nitrogen gas several years ago, but a judge ruled against him.
The use of the death penalty has faced renewed scrutiny since the failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee in September. Courts have nevertheless rejected attempts to halt other executions after Pike survived two lethal doses of pentobarbital.
In a statement dictated to her lawyers and released a month after the failed execution, Pike said she had been in pain every moment since waking in hospital. “I had not contemplated life beyond that night,” she said.
