Three death-row prisoners 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. He then stole her jewellery box, $80 (£60) and other valuables to fund his drug use. Malone had previously helped him find work and secure housing.
Earlier in the day, Indiana executed 50-year-old Jeffrey Weisheit by lethal injection at a state prison in Michigan City.
Weisheit was convicted of killing his partner’s children, eight-year-old Alyssa Lynch and five-year-old Caleb Lynch, by setting fire to their home in Evansville in 2010.
Alyssa’s body was discovered in a closet, while Caleb was found on a mattress with duct tape restraining him. A railroad flare had been placed in his underwear and another was found beneath his body.
In Alabama, 54-year-old Michael Taylor became the third prisoner executed that day. He had been sentenced to death for killing an elderly couple during a home robbery.
Taylor was 19 when he fatally beat 83-year-old Ivan Moore and his 79-year-old wife, Lucille, with a metal bar during the 1991 robbery at their Gadsden home. Police arrested him about an hour later in Birmingham, driving the couple’s Cadillac.
Jesse Guardado (pictured) was pronounced dead at 6.13pm local time on Thursday following a lethal injection at a state prison in Starke, Florida
The executions came as Florida’s outgoing Republican Governor Ron DeSantis continued an aggressive use of capital punishment rarely matched by other governors.
Florida has carried out more than half of the 35 executions in the US so far this year. The death penalty has faced renewed scrutiny since Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute Christa Pike in September.
It was only the second time since August that three states had carried out executions on the same day. Such a sequence remains unusual; the previous occasion was in 2010.
In Florida, Guardado was strapped to a gurney with an intravenous line in his arm before the death-chamber curtain rose at 6pm local time.
Asked whether he wished to make a final statement, he said: ‘I would like to once again apologise for the pain and suffering I’ve caused to the victim’s family and my own family as well.’
The lethal-injection drugs began flowing immediately afterward. About a minute later, Guardado started breathing heavily, then sputtered and twitched.
A short time later, a warden shook Guardado and called his name but received no response. A medic then pronounced him dead.
DeSantis, who is due to leave office in January, has said he wants to provide justice for victims’ families, many of whom have waited decades for death sentences to be carried out.
Michael Taylor was executed by lethal injection on Thursday in Alabama for his conviction in the killing of an elderly man and woman in a home robbery
He signed the death warrants that resulted in a state-record 19 executions in 2025. Florida is scheduled to carry out two more executions later this year.
Patrick Malone, the victim’s son, spoke briefly to reporters afterward. Without directly discussing his mother or the circumstances of her death, he challenged those who oppose 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.
In Alabama, Taylor was pronounced dead at 6.10pm local time after being given a lethal injection.
The execution began shortly before 6pm. When asked whether he had any final words, Taylor replied, ‘no sir’.
He appeared to mouth ‘thank you’ toward his lawyers in the witness room. Taylor’s spiritual adviser then approached and prayed with him. He closed his eyes and did not open them again.
Opponents of the death penalty had asked Republican Governor Kay Ivey to commute Taylor’s sentence to life in prison, pointing to his age and immaturity at the time of the killings. She refused.
In a statement after the execution, Ivey described Taylor’s conduct as ‘reprehensible’. She said 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) on Thursday by lethal injection in a state prison in Michigan City
She also criticised California Governor Gavin Newsom over his plan to commute all death sentences in that state.
‘California may let their criminals escape justice, but not Alabama. Here, we enforce the law and always will,’ Ivey said at the end of her statement.
Taylor’s 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 death 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 read.
‘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.
Taylor’s lawyers objected to the change because he had selected nitrogen gas as his preferred method several years earlier. A judge nevertheless ruled against him.
His defence lawyers said Taylor ‘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 years in prison 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 Noelle Russell, a Department of Correction spokeswoman. He did not make a final statement.
Weisheit had acknowledged killing his girlfriend’s two children in a house fire near Evansville. 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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