Three men executed in three states on same day for first time since 2010
Three men were put to death by lethal injection across the U.S. on Thursday, marking the first time since 2010 that three executions occurred on a single day. Tennessee and Oklahoma administered lethal injections within 30 minutes of each other, with Alabama following hours later.
The Tennessee prisoner was executed for killing a motel maid in 1985, and the Oklahoma inmate for the 2003 murder of his girlfriend. In Alabama, a man was put to death Thursday evening for killing a 5-year-old girl he had paid her mother to abuse.
Although three executions in one day stemmed from a scheduling coincidence, it reflects a broader rise in U.S. capital punishment. Eleven states executed 47 people in 2025, the highest total since 2009. Following Thursday’s executions, 22 inmates have been put to death this year, with nearly a dozen more scheduled.
The last time three executions were carried out on the same day was on Jan. 7, 2010, when Louisiana, Ohio and Texas put inmates to death. Three executions were scheduled on the same day in 2018, but only one went forward after a Texas man was granted a reprieve and prison officials in Alabama had problems with the IV line.
Florida executed two men on the same day in July and has put 31 prisoners to death since the start of 2025.
Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez, 70, died by lethal injection at the state’s penitentiary in rural McAlester, the third person put to death this year in Oklahoma.
Cuesta-Rodriguez turned his head to look at his two relatives who attended and mouthed “I love you” but said he had no last words. His breathing was labored for several minutes before he was pronounced dead at 10:13 a.m. CDT.
Convicted of fatally shooting his girlfriend at their Oklahoma City home in 2003, Cuesta-Rodriguez had said he regretted killing Olimpia Fisher and told a board he didn’t want clemency. His attorneys said he had a difficult childhood in Cuba and suffered from brain damage and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Fisher, 43, planned to leave Cuesta-Rodriguez when he shot her in one eye and then he waited about eight minutes as she screamed for help before firing the fatal shot into her other eye.
Fisher’s daughters, Cinthya Allen and Katya Wallis, said in a statement that they hoped the execution brings awareness to preventing domestic violence and they honor their mother by “raising our families to reflect the love and faith in God that she taught us.”
Anthony Darrell Hines received an injection in Tennessee for the 1985 murder of Catherine Jean Jenkins. He was pronounced dead at 10:43 a.m. CDT.
Hines stabbed Jenkins to death while the 54-year-old was working as a motel maid in Kingston Springs.
Hines said “not right now, thank you” when asked if he had final words, then said, “Tell my son hello” before he died. Hines’ son witnessed the execution. He reconnected with his father four days earlier after not seeing him since he was 3 years old.
About four minutes after the curtain to the death chamber opened, Hines asked his spiritual adviser: “How long do I have?” Not long afterward, witnesses heard groans and heavy breathing as the spiritual adviser put her hands on his shoulders and prayed over him.
