Three men are scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Thursday in Tennessee, Alabama, and Oklahoma, in a rare occurrence of same-day executions across multiple states. The last time three states carried out executions on a single day was January 7, 2010, when prisoners were put to death in Louisiana, Ohio, and Texas.
In Tennessee, Anthony Darrell Hines, 66, is scheduled to be executed for the 1985 murder of 54-year-old motel maid Catherine Jean Jenkins in Kingston Springs. Prosecutors stated Hines stabbed Jenkins while she was at work. He was initially sentenced to death in 1986, but a successful appeal led to a new sentencing hearing where he was again sentenced to death in 1989. Hines' execution is scheduled three months after a previous execution in Tennessee was halted when officials could not establish an IV line. Hines has asked the governor and courts to intervene, citing concerns about the qualifications of the doctor involved in the May procedure and potential difficulties with IV placement due to muscular atrophy and weight loss after two strokes.
Alabama plans to execute Jeremy Williams for the 2021 rape and murder of 5-year-old Kamarie Holland. Williams pleaded guilty, waived his appeals, and requested the death penalty. Prosecutors allege that Williams paid Holland's mother $2,500 before sexually assaulting and strangling the child, and that he recorded the assault and kept the victim's body for further abuse. Williams was also investigated in Alaska in 2005 in connection with his infant daughter's death, though no charges were filed until 2022. A federal judge had previously halted a planned nitrogen gas execution in Alabama in June, ruling the method unconstitutional.
Oklahoma is set to execute Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez for the 2003 murder of his girlfriend, Olimpia Fisher, at their Oklahoma City home. Cuesta-Rodriguez has expressed regret but has not sought clemency. Fisher was preparing to leave Cuesta-Rodriguez when he shot her, leaving her to suffer for approximately eight minutes before shooting her again. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond stated that Cuesta-Rodriguez made Fisher suffer because she attempted to leave him. The state's Pardon and Parole Board rejected clemency in a 3-1 vote last month. Cuesta-Rodriguez's lawyers cited his difficult childhood in Cuba, brain damage, post-traumatic stress disorder, and major depression as reasons for a life sentence.
Florida executed two men in one day in July, bringing its total to 31 executions since the start of 2025. Eleven states carried out executions in the previous year. If Tennessee and Alabama proceed with their scheduled executions, six states will have carried out death sentences in 2026.