Weisheit’s lawyers request delay and drug-sourcing review before Thursday
Jeffrey Weisheit is scheduled to be executed Thursday for a 2010 fire he set at the Evansville-area home of Lisa Lynch and her children, 8-year-old Alyssa Lynch and 5-year-old Caleb Lynch. The children died in the fire, and Weisheit was convicted of murder and arson.
The children’s remains were recovered from the ruins. Alyssa’s body was in a closet. Caleb’s body was on a mattress and had been restrained with duct tape. A railroad flare was in his underwear, and another was under his body. Lisa Lynch was at work at the time, and investigators said her relationship with Weisheit was breaking down.
On Monday, Indiana Gov. Mike Braun, a Republican, rejected Weisheit’s clemency request and said the execution planned for Thursday would go forward. Braun said he was following the Indiana Parole Board’s recommendation to let the death sentence stand. Braun also said, “The Indiana Department of Correction will continue preparations to carry out the court-ordered sentence of execution” Thursday.
Weisheit, 50, had a right under Indiana law to ask Braun to reduce the death sentence to life for his murder and arson convictions. The request asked the governor to change the sentence before the court-ordered execution.
At an Oct. 16 public hearing, Weisheit acknowledged his crimes and said he wanted to live and improve the lives of other people in prison.
Weisheit’s lawyers said he had a history of head injuries and mental health problems that did not receive enough attention at his 2013 trial.
Separately, his legal team asked Braun to delay the execution and review how Indiana acquires drugs for lethal injections. The lawyers said Indiana purchased pentobarbital from a pharmacy under scrutiny by the state attorney general. They also cited the recent failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee and Gov. Bill Lee’s decision there to review what happened during the attempted lethal injection.
Braun spokesperson Griffin Reid said the “process is over.” The Indiana Department of Correction said, “We remain confident in our process and our ability to humanely carry out the lawfully imposed sentence for the murders of two innocent children.”