Three death-row inmates were executed in three US states on Thursday.
Jesse Guardado, 64, was pronounced dead at 6.13pm local time after receiving a lethal injection at a state prison in Starke, Florida.
Guardado had pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing 75-year-old Jackie Malone at her Walton County home in 2004 before taking her jewellery box, $80 (£60) and other valuables to fund his drug use. Malone had previously helped him find work and housing.
Earlier in the day, Indiana executed 50-year-old Jeffrey Weisheit by lethal injection at the state prison in Michigan City.
Weisheit was convicted of killing Alyssa Lynch, eight, and her five-year-old brother, Caleb, by setting fire to his partner’s home in Evansville in 2010.
Alyssa was found in a closet, while Caleb was discovered on a mattress, restrained with duct tape. A railroad flare was found in his underwear and another beneath his body.
In Alabama, 54-year-old Michael Taylor became the third inmate executed that day. He had been sentenced to death for killing an elderly couple during a home robbery.
Taylor was 19 when he beat Ivan Moore, 83, and his 79-year-old wife, Lucille, to death with a metal bar during the 1991 robbery at their home in Gadsden, Alabama. Police arrested him in the couple’s Cadillac about an hour away in Birmingham.
Jesse Guardado (pictured) was pronounced dead at 6.13pm local time on Thursday after receiving a lethal injection at a state prison in Starke, Florida
The executions came as Florida’s outgoing Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, has pursued capital punishment more aggressively than many other governors.
Florida has carried out more than half of the 35 executions conducted in the US so far this year, as the death penalty faces renewed scrutiny after Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute Christa Pike in September.
It was the second time since August that three states had carried out executions on the same day, an occurrence that remains rare. Before then, it had not happened since 2010.
In Florida, Guardado was secured to a gurney with an IV in his arm when the death-chamber curtain opened at 6pm local time.
Asked whether he wanted to make a final statement, he said: ‘I would like to once again apologize for the pain and suffering I’ve caused to the victim’s family and my own family as well.’
The lethal drugs began flowing immediately. About a minute later, Guardado started breathing heavily before sputtering and twitching.
A short time later, a warden shook him and called his name without receiving a response. A medical professional then pronounced him dead.
DeSantis, who leaves office in January, has said he wants to deliver justice to victims’ families, many of whom have waited decades for death sentences to be carried out.
Michael Taylor was executed by lethal injection in Alabama on Thursday for killing an elderly man and woman during a home robbery
He signed the death warrants that brought Florida’s total to a state-record 19 executions in 2025. Two more executions are scheduled later this year.
Patrick Malone, the victim’s son, spoke briefly to reporters after Guardado’s execution. Without directly discussing his mother or her killing, he challenged opponents of capital punishment.
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‘Do such people ever think about what happened to the victim or consider the unending aftermath the victim’s family endures and relives every time that terrible event comes up?’ Malone said.
Taylor was pronounced dead in Alabama at 6.10pm local time following a lethal injection.
The procedure began shortly before 6pm. When asked whether he had any final words, Taylor answered, ‘no sir’.
He appeared to mouth ‘thank you’ to his attorneys in the witness room. Taylor’s spiritual adviser then prayed with him before Taylor closed his eyes and did not reopen them.
Opponents of the death penalty had urged Republican Governor Kay Ivey to commute Taylor’s sentence to life in prison, citing his age and immaturity at the time of the murders. She refused.
In a statement after the execution, Ivey described Taylor’s conduct as ‘reprehensible’, saying the couple had welcomed him into their home and that ‘Mr Taylor repaid the Moores by beating them to death with a metal bar, all to rob them for money to buy clothing and jewellery.’
Indiana executed 50-year-old Jeffrey Weisheit (pictured) by lethal injection on Thursday at a state prison in Michigan City
She also criticised California Governor Gavin Newsom for his plan to commute every death sentence in that state.
‘California may let their criminals escape justice, but not Alabama. Here, we enforce the law and always will,’ Ivey said.
The victims’ family thanked the state attorney general’s office for bringing the case to a close, but said they had been forced to wait 35 years for the sentence to be carried out.
‘We know that a person has the right to appeal, but there should come a time when the jury’s decision is final. For all these years, our family has had to live with the waiting, the delays, and the uncertainty,’ their statement said.
‘We have never forgotten our loved ones or what was taken from us.’
Alabama changed Taylor’s execution method after a judge ruled that the use of nitrogen gas was unconstitutional.
His attorneys objected to the change because Taylor had selected nitrogen gas as his preferred method years earlier, but a judge rejected the challenge.
Taylor’s defence attorneys said he ‘knew the depth of the harm he caused’ and had ‘grieved it for the rest of his life’. They said he had changed during his imprisonment and that ‘Michael’s life was proof that God isn’t finished with any of us.’
In Indiana, Weisheit was pronounced dead at 12.45am local time, according to Department of Correction spokesman Noelle Russell. He did not make a final statement.
Weisheit had admitted killing his girlfriend’s two children in a house fire near Evansville in 2010. He had hoped Governor Mike Braun would grant clemency and reduce his sentence to life in prison, but Braun declined.
The execution delivered ‘long-awaited justice for Alyssa Lynch and her brother Caleb, two innocent children whose lives were stolen in an act of unspeakable cruelty’, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said.
The three executions took place on the same day that California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, announced plans to commute all 548 death sentences in the state. Newsom said he believed ‘state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values’.
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