Florida, Alabama and Indiana are scheduled to carry out executions on the same day this Thursday, marking the second time in 2026 that three death row inmates have been put to death within a 24-hour span nationwide.
The first such day came on August 13, when Oklahoma, Tennessee and Alabama executed three inmates within hours of one another.
In Florida, Thursday’s execution would be the state’s 19th of 2026, tying the record set in 2025. Alabama is preparing for its third execution of the year, while Indiana is set to carry out its first.
Florida: Jesse Guardado
Jesse Guardado, 64, is scheduled to die in Florida after confessing and pleading guilty to fatally stabbing 75-year-old Jackie Malone in 2004. Malone had helped Guardado find a job and housing. He killed her inside her home and stole her jewelry box, $80 and other items to fund his drug addiction.
“Jesse Guardado has accepted responsibility for killing Jackie Malone and has consistently expressed deep remorse. Florida should accept responsibility for what it did to him as a child, too,” said Grace Hanna, executive director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, urging the state to halt the execution.
Florida has ramped up executions under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has signed a series of death warrants since 2025. The state carried out a record 19 executions last year, more than any other Florida governor’s single year since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 — accounting for roughly 40% of the 47 executions carried out nationwide that year. Florida has also accounted for more than half of the 32 executions carried out nationwide so far in 2026. In July, the state executed two prisoners on the same day, the first double execution by a single state in nearly a decade.
Alabama: Michael Taylor
In Alabama, Michael Taylor, 54, is scheduled to be executed for the 1991 murders of an older couple who were beaten to death with a metal bar during a robbery at their home. Authorities caught Taylor about an hour away in Birmingham, driving the victims’ Cadillac.
State officials plan to carry out the execution by lethal injection after a judge rejected objections from Taylor’s attorneys, who had sought to preserve his earlier request for execution by nitrogen gas instead.
Death penalty opponents asked Republican Gov. Kay Ivey to commute Taylor’s sentence to life in prison, arguing he was too young and immature at 19 to fully grasp the consequences of his actions.
“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,” Esther Brown of Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty told The Associated Press.
Ivey rejected the clemency requests, clearing the way for Taylor’s execution to proceed.
Indiana: Jeffrey Weisheit
In Indiana, Jeffrey Weisheit, 50, faces execution for setting a 2010 house fire that killed his girlfriend’s two children, ages 8 and 5, as the couple’s relationship was breaking down.
Weisheit’s attorneys sought permission for additional brain scans, arguing that his history of head injuries and mental health problems warranted further examination. Republican Gov. Mike Braun denied the request and also rejected appeals to commute the death sentence to life in prison.
Weisheit’s lawyers have separately raised concerns about Indiana’s planned use of execution drugs obtained from a pharmacy facing a disciplinary hearing before the Indiana Pharmacy Board next week. The Indiana Department of Correction said it remains confident it can carry out the execution “humanely.”
Scrutiny of lethal injection procedures
The scheduled executions come amid renewed scrutiny of lethal injection procedures following a failed execution attempt in Tennessee in September, when death row inmate Christa Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital and was rushed to a hospital. She has since returned to prison.
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login