Florida’s 19th execution would match its record set in 2025
According to the Associated Press, Indiana, Florida and Alabama were scheduled to carry out three executions Thursday. The plans would mark the second time this year that three people were set to be put to death on the same day. The timing came amid renewed scrutiny of the death penalty after Tennessee’s failed execution of Christa Pike. Courts have rejected efforts to halt other executions since she survived two lethal doses of pentobarbital last month.
Jeffrey Weisheit, 50, was set to be executed in Indiana, where the death penalty is not as common. The proceeding would be the state’s first execution this year. Weisheit was convicted of setting a fire that killed his girlfriend’s two children, ages 8 and 5, at a home in the Evansville area in 2010. The murders apparently were related to the couple’s deteriorating relationship.
His lawyers asked Republican Gov. Mike Braun to allow Weisheit to undergo brain scans to reinforce their argument that he had a history of head injuries and mental health problems. Braun declined and also turned down a request to reduce Weisheit’s sentence to life in prison.
Weisheit’s latest objection centered on the state’s planned use of lethal drugs purchased from a pharmacy facing a disciplinary hearing next week at the Indiana Pharmacy Board. The Indiana Department of Correction said it was confident “in our ability to humanely carry out” the execution.
In Florida, Jesse Guardado, 64, was set to face execution. He confessed and quickly pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing a 75-year-old woman inside her Walton County home in 2004, then stole her jewelry box, $80 and other valuables to support his drug habit. The woman had helped him get a job and housing.
A federal appeals court in 2024 said Guardado had received a “full and fair” hearing during the death penalty phase of his case.
Florida’s scheduled execution would be its 19th this year under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, matching a record the state set in 2025. Florida had carried out more than half of the 32 total U.S. executions so far this year. DeSantis, who leaves office in January, said his goal is to bring justice to families who have waited decades for the death sentences to be carried out.
In Alabama, Michael Taylor, 54, faced execution 35 years after he fatally beat an older couple with a metal bar during a robbery in their Gadsden home. Police arrested the 19-year-old Taylor with the victims’ Cadillac an hour away in Birmingham. His execution would be Alabama’s third this year.
Death penalty opponents urged Republican Gov. Kay Ivey to reduce Taylor’s sentence to life in prison, citing his age and his immaturity at the time of the killings. Ivey declined. “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.
Alabama planned to execute Taylor by lethal injection after a judge declared nitrogen gas unconstitutional. His attorneys objected to the last-minute switch because he had selected nitrogen gas as his method several years earlier, but a judge ruled against Taylor.