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Courts & Justice

Fox: Indiana, Florida and Alabama each execute a man on the same day

Indiana put Jeffrey Weisheit to death after midnight, and Fox News reports Florida's execution matched its record of 19 set in 2025.

9 news outlets reported this
Liberal4 outletsIndiana's execution amid scrutiny of lethal injectionCenter2 outletsDetails of each case and the Indiana executionConservative3 outletsA completed triple execution day and officials' words
Published 4 min read
Overview

Three US states had lethal injections set for Thursday, Nov. 5. Indiana went first, executing Jeffrey Weisheit, 50, at its prison in Michigan City. A corrections department spokesperson gave his time of death as 12:45 a.m. He was convicted over a fire near Evansville in which his girlfriend's two young children died.

Gov. Mike Braun refused to let his lawyers obtain brain scans and refused to reduce the sentence to life in prison. The lawyers also objected to execution drugs supplied by a pharmacy that faces a disciplinary hearing with the Indiana Pharmacy Board. Fox News reported that Florida then executed Jesse Guardado, 64, who confessed to fatally stabbing a 75-year-old woman in 2004, and that Alabama executed Michael Taylor for the 1991 beating deaths of an older couple.

According to Fox News, Florida's execution matched the state's record of 19 in one year, set in 2025. Fox also said an earlier day with three executions fell on Aug. 13. has drawn renewed scrutiny since Christa Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital in a failed execution in Tennessee in September.

Fox News also reported that California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he wants to reduce all 548 of the state's death sentences to life without .

Key figures
  • 19 Florida executions in a year, matching its 2025 record, per Fox News — Fox News
  • 32 US executions before Thursday's, more than half in Florida — Fox News
  • 3-2 Indiana Supreme Court vote denying a 10-day pause, per UPI — UPI
  • 47 executions nationwide in 2025, per Fox News — Fox News
  • 548 California death sentences Newsom says he seeks to commute, per Fox News — Fox News

Three sides of the story

Liberal4 outlets

Indiana's execution amid scrutiny of lethal injection

The Guardian opens with Florida and Alabama planning executions "just hours after" Indiana put a prisoner to death, and ties the day to scrutiny since Christa Pike's failed execution in Tennessee. It quotes Esther Brown of Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty on Alabama's Michael Taylor, and recalls Alabama's 2024 nitrogen execution of Kenneth Smith, which witnesses found "excruciating."

CBS News and The Independent ran the Associated Press report. CBS headlines it as Indiana carrying out the first of three executions and adds Pike's statement that she has been in pain since waking confused in a hospital. It also gives Gov. Mike Braun's statement that court reviews have "never resulted in an overturned sentence."

The Independent's headline calls Weisheit a "child killer." Yahoo News, in a piece published before the executions, says Weisheit's attorneys asked Braun to pause Indiana's executions because of Pike's case. It calls three executions in one day "extremely rare" and describes an "uptick" in the death penalty since the start of 2025.

Center2 outlets

Details of each case and the Indiana execution

UPI's pieces center on the cases. One headline reads "Indiana executes Jeffery Weisheit for murders of two children." It reports that witnesses said staff let them see Weisheit only just before the execution, and quotes attorney Joseph Perkovich: "Mr. Weisheit was unresponsive."

It adds that the Indiana denied a 10-day pause in a 3-2 decision, that the children's mother, Lisa Lynch, urged Braun to allow the execution, and that their father, Steven Lynch, urged . A second UPI report lays out the crimes of all three inmates and cites the Death Penalty Information Center on the earlier triple day, Aug. 13. The Seattle Times ran the Associated Press report under "2 more executions set in Florida and Alabama, hours after lethal injection in Indiana."

It notes that two of five Indiana justices wanted a 10-day stay, and that Florida's execution would match its 2025 record. An earlier version of the wire report ran as "3 executions scheduled for the same day."

Conservative3 outlets

A completed triple execution day and officials' words

Fox News reports the day as completed in "Indiana, Florida and Alabama carry out rare US triple execution day." It gives Guardado's time of death, 6:13 p.m. at Florida State Prison, and says Alabama put Taylor to death by lethal injection after a judge rejected his attorneys' objections to the method. It quotes Gov. Kay Ivey, who called Taylor's actions "reprehensible," and the victims' family, who spoke of waiting 35 years.

Fox adds that California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he is seeking to commute all 548 of the state's death sentences. An earlier Fox report quotes Grace Hanna of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, who urged Florida to halt Guardado's execution and said: "Florida should accept responsibility for what it did to him as a child, too." The New York Post ran the Associated Press report on Indiana's execution, which notes that Indiana bars media witnesses.

Just the News, citing CBS News, gives a short account of Indiana's execution and the two scheduled in Florida and Alabama.

Where outlets disagree
All sources: 13 articles from 9 outlets

Liberal (4)

Center (4)

Conservative (5)

Death row and lethal injection

Where prisoners sentenced to death wait, often for years, while their appeals are heard. The death penalty exists in about half the states and under federal law, and lethal injection is the usual method.

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Probation and parole

Two ways of serving a sentence outside prison under supervision: probation is ordered instead of prison, parole is early release from it. Breaking the conditions can mean prison.

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Supreme Court

The highest US court: nine justices, appointed for life by the president with the Senate's approval. Its rulings bind every other court.

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Clemency and commutation

Mercy a president or governor grants a convicted person. A commutation shortens the sentence but the conviction stands, a pardon forgives the crime, and a reprieve only delays the punishment.

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