Three States Set to Carry Out Executions on the Same Day on Thursday

Updated 00:52 UTC: Alabama execution completes the triple execution day

Alabama executed Michael Shannon Taylor by lethal injection on Thursday for the 1991 beating deaths of Ivan Moore, 83, and Lucille Moore, 79, a couple he knew in Gadsden. Taylor was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. Central time, USA Today reported. He was the third person put to death in Alabama this year.

Florida had executed Jesse Guardado about an hour earlier. The Florida Department of Corrections said Guardado was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. Eastern time at Florida State Prison near Starke, in a statement carried by the Pensacola News Journal. His execution was Florida's 19th this year, tying the state record set in 2025.

With Indiana's execution of Jeffrey Weisheit early on Thursday, all three scheduled executions were carried out. Thursday became the second day this year on which three people were put to death in the United States on the same day, USA Today reported. The first was August 13, when Alabama, Tennessee and Oklahoma carried out executions.

Updated 09:13 UTC: Indiana execution carried out

Indiana carried out the first of the three executions early on Thursday. Jeffrey Weisheit, 50, died by lethal injection of pentobarbital at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. The Indiana Department of Correction listed his official time of death as 12:45 a.m. Central time, and he had no last words, the Evansville Courier & Press reported. Governor Mike Braun said in a statement issued at 1 a.m. Central time: "Today, Weisheit's sentence has been carried out as ordered by the court." Weisheit was the fourth person executed in Indiana in less than two years. The Florida execution of Jesse Guardado, set for 6 p.m. Eastern time, and the Alabama execution of Michael Taylor, set for 6 p.m. Central time, were still scheduled when this update was published.

Three states are set to carry out executions on Thursday. Indiana planned to go first, before sunrise, with Florida and Alabama following in the evening. The Associated Press reported that the three lethal injections would mark the second time this year that three people have been put to death on the same day in the United States. The first came on August 13, when Alabama, Tennessee and Oklahoma all carried out executions.

Indiana goes first

Jeffrey Weisheit, 50, was sentenced to death in 2013 for setting a fire that killed two children at a home near Evansville in 2010: Alyssa Lynch, 8, and her brother Caleb Lynch, 5, the children of his girlfriend. His execution, set for before sunrise at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, would be Indiana's first this year, the Associated Press reported.

Governor Mike Braun denied Weisheit clemency on Monday, November 2. His lawyers pressed for a pause, citing the state's execution drug records and Tennessee's botched lethal injection of Christa Pike last month. The Indiana Capital Chronicle reported that the state paid $275,000 for pentobarbital from a pharmacy that is on probation. Courts have rejected efforts to halt other executions since Pike survived, the Associated Press reported. The Death Penalty Information Center reported that Steven Lynch, the father of the two children, opposed the execution and urged mercy.

Florida matches its own record

In Florida, Jesse Guardado, 64, was scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Raiford. Guardado confessed and pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing Jackie Malone, a 75-year-old community activist, inside her Walton County home in 2004. The Associated Press reported that he stole her jewelry box, $80 and other valuables to support his drug habit. Malone had helped him get a job and housing.

If the execution goes ahead, Guardado will be the 19th person put to death in Florida this year, matching the state record set in 2025 under Governor Ron DeSantis, who signed his death warrant on October 5. Florida has carried out more than half of the 32 executions in the United States so far this year, the Associated Press reported. The Florida Supreme Court denied Guardado's request for a stay, USA Today reported.

Alabama closes the day

Alabama planned to execute Michael Taylor at 6 p.m. Central time, in what would be the state's third execution this year. Taylor was 19 and absent without leave from the Navy on November 4, 1991, when he went to the Gadsden home of Ivan Moore, 83, and Lucille Moore, 79, a couple he knew. Court records say he asked to use their telephone, then beat both of them with a metal bar and took their wallets and their car, USA Today reported. A jury convicted him of capital murder in 1993 and unanimously recommended the death penalty, the Montgomery Advertiser reported.

Taylor was first scheduled to die by nitrogen gas, but a judge ruled that method unconstitutional, so the state planned lethal injection, the Associated Press reported. Governor Kay Ivey has said she does not currently plan to grant clemency, the Montgomery Advertiser reported.

A rare day, set by separate calendars

Death penalty observers told USA Today that days like Thursday are a coincidence of scheduling, not coordination. Three state systems set three separate dates, and the dates landed on the same day. Executions in the United States remain concentrated in a small number of states, and Florida alone accounts for more than half of this year's total.