Jeffrey Weisheit, a 50-year-old Indiana man convicted of killing his girlfriend’s two children in a house fire in 2010, was executed by lethal injection on Thursday, November 5.
Two more executions are scheduled to take place in Florida and Alabama later the same day, marking the second time this year that three people are set to be put to death in the United States on the same day, according to the Associated Press (AP).
Police arrested him in Birmingham, about an hour away, while he was driving the victims’ Cadillac. Death penalty opponents urged Republican Governor Kay Ivey to commute Taylor’s sentence to life imprisonment , citing his age at the time of the killings. Ivey declined the request. The three scheduled executions come amid renewed scrutiny of capital punishment following Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute Christa Pike last month. Pike survived two lethal doses of pentobarbital, while courts have rejected attempts to halt other executions since the incident.
Taylor was 19 when he fatally beat the couple with a metal bar.
Guardado confessed to stabbing the woman inside her home before stealing her jewellery box, $80 and other valuables to support his drug habit.
The victim had previously helped him secure employment and housing.
The murders were reportedly linked to the deteriorating relationship between Weisheit and the children’s mother. His lawyers had appealed to Republican Governor Mike Braun to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment. They also sought permission for Weisheit to undergo brain scans, arguing that his history of head injuries and mental health problems should be considered. Braun rejected the requests.
Weisheit was convicted of setting fire to a home near Evansville, Indiana, killing his girlfriend’s children, aged 8 and 5.
A federal appeals court ruled in 2024 that Guardado had received a full and fair hearing during the death penalty phase of his case.
