Tennessee execution first since May lethal-injection attempt halted
Tennessee, Alabama, and Oklahoma are scheduled to execute three condemned prisoners by lethal injection on Thursday — the first time three U.S. states have carried out executions on the same day since 2010, according to data from the Death Penalty Information Center reported by USA Today. Two of the three condemned men are not contesting their executions; one maintains his innocence.
The last triple execution was in 2010, in Ohio, Texas, and Louisiana, UPI reported. Nine additional executions are scheduled later this year, including one in Florida on Aug. 18.
Tennessee’s scheduled execution of Anthony Darrell Hines, 66, would be the state’s first since the lethal-injection attempt on Tony Carruthers in May. That execution was halted after a doctor could not find a vein for a backup intravenous line. Gov. Bill Lee granted Carruthers a one-year stay of execution. The state has declined to say whether the same doctor will participate in Thursday’s procedure, citing a policy of protecting the identities of medical staff involved in executions, according to UPI.
Alabama’s scheduled execution of Jeremy Williams, 42, would be the state’s first since the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the nitrogen-gas execution of Jeffrey Lee, 49. Williams was convicted of the 2021 rape and murder of Kamarie Holland, 5, who was trafficked to him by her mother. Williams told his attorneys not to defend him and ordered them not to appeal after sentencing, UPI reported. He never expressed remorse for the killing, telling USA Today only that he was “sick.” Holland’s mother is serving a 20-year sentence.
Oklahoma is scheduled to execute Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez, 77, for the 2003 murder of his common-law wife, Olimpia Fisher, 43. Cuesta-Rodriguez shot Fisher twice in the face as she tried to escape his abuse, UPI reported. Last month, his attorneys argued to the Oklahoma Board of Parole and Pardon that his life should be spared, but Cuesta-Rodriguez told the board he did not deserve to live. “You must believe that I deserve to suffer. And you’re right,” he said to Fisher’s daughters, according to UPI. “It’s time for me to pay for what I did.”
Hines is scheduled for execution for the 1985 murder of Catherine Jean Jenkins, 54, a mother of four who was working as a hotel maid when she was attacked, UPI reported. He stabbed Jenkins to death, stole $100 in cash from her, and stole her car. He has admitted to stealing the car but maintains he did not kill Jenkins, according to UPI.