An Indiana man who admitted killing his girlfriend’s two children was executed early Thursday, the first of three lethal injections planned for the same day in the United States
In 2010, Jeffrey Weisheit set fire to his girlfriend’s house in the Evansville area, killing their 8-year-old and 5-year-old children.
Weisheit died at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. The lethal injection began just after midnight and he was pronounced dead at 12:45 a.m., Noelle Russell, chief communications officer for the Indiana Department of Corrections, said.
She said Wishet’s last meal was barbecued ribs, but he had no final words.
Florida and Alabama are also scheduled to carry out executions on Thursday, which would be the second time this year in the United States that executions have been carried out on the same day.
Alabama, Tennessee and Oklahoma Execution on August 13.
It would be Florida’s 19th execution this year under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, joining National record set in 2025but it’s the first time this year in Indiana.
Death penalty faces new scrutiny after September events Christa Pike’s execution failed In Tennessee, she survived two fatal doses of pentobarbital, though courts rejected efforts to block other executions.
In a statement dictated to her lawyers a month after the failed execution, Peck said she had been in pain every moment since she woke up in a daze at the hospital. “I didn’t think about life after that night,” she said.
Lawyers want Indiana’s Republican governor, Mike Braun, to allow Wischet, 50, to undergo a brain scan to bolster their argument that he has a history of head injuries and mental health problems. Braun refused, as did a request to reduce his sentence to life in prison.
Wichet’s latest objections focus on the state’s plan to use lethal drugs purchased from a pharmacy that faces a disciplinary hearing next week before the Indiana Board of Pharmacy. The Indiana Department of Corrections said it is confident in its ability to “carry out humanely” the death penalty.
After the execution, Braun issued a brief statement noting that Wichet’s case has been reviewed multiple times by state and federal courts.
“These reviews have never resulted in a verdict being overturned,” he said. “Today, Wishet’s sentence was carried out in compliance with the court’s order.”
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said the execution “provides long-awaited justice for Alyssa Lynch and her brother Caleb, two innocent children whose lives were taken in an act of unspeakable cruelty.”
Executions imminent in Florida
In Florida, Jesse Guardado confessed and quickly pleaded guilty to stabbing a 75-year-old woman to death in her Walton County home in 2004 and then stealing her jewelry box, $80 and other valuables to support his drug habit. She helped him find a job and housing.
In 2024, a federal appeals court said Guardado, 64, received a “full and fair” hearing during the death penalty phase of his case.
Florida has carried out more than half of the 32 total executions in the United States so far this year. DeSantis, who will leave office in January, has said his goal is to bring justice to families who have waited decades for executions.
Alabama execution scheduled
Michael Taylor, 54, faces execution in Alabama after beating an elderly couple to death with a metal bar in their Gadsden home 35 years ago. Police arrested Taylor, 19, who was driving the victim’s Cadillac, an hour away in Birmingham. The execution will be the state’s third this year.
Death penalty opponents had urged Republican Gov. Kay Ivey to commute Taylor’s sentence to life supervision because Taylor was young and immature at the time of the killing. She refused.
Esther Brown of Project Hope for Abolition said: “If the state killed Michael, it would not have killed the 19-year-old who made the worst mistake of his life. It would have killed the mature, respected, God-fearing man who sat in that cell today.”
State plans to execute Taylor after lethal injection Judge declares nitrogen law unconstitutional. His attorneys argued against a last-minute switch to lethal injection because he had chosen nitrogen as his execution method years earlier, but the judge ruled against Taylor.