Florida carries out 19th execution of the year as three states schedule lethal injections on the same day

Florida’s Department of Corrections announced that Jesse Guardado was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. on Thursday following a three‑drug lethal injection at the state prison in Starke. Guardado had pleaded guilty to the 2004 stabbing death of a 75‑year‑old woman in Walton County and to theft of her jewelry and cash, crimes for which he received a death sentence.

Earlier that morning, Indiana executed Jeffrey Weisheit, 50, at the Michigan City prison. Weisheit had been convicted of killing his girlfriend’s two children in a 2010 house fire. A spokesperson for the Indiana Department of Correction said he had no final words and that his request for clemency from Governor Mike Braun had been denied.

Later on Thursday, Alabama scheduled the execution of Michael Taylor, 54, by lethal injection. Taylor was convicted of a 1991 robbery in Gadsden that resulted in the deaths of two elderly men. Although he had previously selected nitrogen gas as his method, a judge ruled the method unconstitutional, leading to the switch to lethal injection. Governor Kay Ivey declined a request to commute his sentence.

The three executions marked the second instance since August 2023 that three U.S. states carried out death sentences on the same day, a situation not seen since 2010. The events occurred as California’s Governor Gavin Newsom announced a plan to commute all 548 death sentences in his state, citing a conflict with California’s values. Florida’s outgoing Governor Ron DeSantis has been noted for his frequent use of the death penalty, with the state accounting for more than half of the 34 executions recorded in the United States so far this year.