Indiana, Florida and Alabama carry out 3 U.S. executions on the same day
This marks the second time this year that three people in the U.S. were put to death on a single day.
Key points
- Indiana, Florida and Alabama carried out three lethal injections on the same day, the second such day this year.
- Jeffrey Weisheit was executed in Indiana for killing his girlfriend's two children in 2010.
- Florida's Jesse Guardado and Alabama's Michael Taylor were also put to death Thursday evening.
Three executions by lethal injection took place on the same day in Indiana, Florida and Alabama, the second time this year that three people in the U.S. were put to death on one day. Alabama, Tennessee and Oklahoma carried out executions on Aug. 13.
In Indiana, Jeffrey Weisheit was executed early Thursday at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City for killing his girlfriend's two children, ages 8 and 5, by setting fire to her house in the Evansville area in 2010. He was pronounced dead at 12:45 a.m. local time, according to Noelle Russell, Indiana Department of Correction chief communications officer. She said his final meal was barbecue ribs and he had no final words.
Florida and Alabama executions
Florida carried out its record-tying 19th execution of the year Thursday evening, when Jesse Guardado, 64, was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. local time after a three-drug injection at a state prison in Starke. He had pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing a 75-year-old woman in her Walton County home in 2004 and stealing her jewelry box, $80 and other valuables to buy drugs.
In Alabama, 54-year-old Michael Taylor was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. local time for his conviction in the killing of an elderly man and woman during a 1991 home robbery in Gadsden. Asked if he had final words, Taylor replied "no sir," and he appeared to mouth "thank you" toward his attorneys.
Today, Weisheit's sentence has been carried out as ordered by the court.
— Indiana Gov. Mike Braun
Requests for clemency rejected
Lawyers had asked Indiana Gov. Mike Braun to allow Weisheit, 50, to undergo brain scans to support arguments about head injuries and mental health problems, and to reduce his sentence to life in prison. Braun declined both. After the execution, Braun said Weisheit's case was reviewed many times by state and federal courts and that "These reviews have never resulted in an overturned sentence."
Death penalty opponents urged Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey to reduce Taylor's sentence to life in prison, noting his age and immaturity at the time of the killings. Ivey declined, calling his actions "reprehensible" in a statement after the execution.
