Indiana Executes Jeffrey Weisheit, First of Three U.S. Executions Set for Thursday

Indiana executed Jeffrey Weisheit, 50, by lethal injection at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City early Thursday for the 2010 killings of his girlfriend's two children, ages 8 and 5, in a house fire near Evansville. The injection began just after midnight, and he was pronounced dead at 12:45 a.m., a Department of Correction spokesperson said. His final meal was barbecue ribs and he had no final words. The Indiana Supreme Court voted 3-2 late Wednesday to let the execution proceed; the two dissenting justices would have paused it for 10 days to resolve questions about the lethal drugs. Attorney General Todd Rokita called the outcome long-awaited justice for the victims, Alyssa Lynch, 8, and her brother Caleb, 5.

Two more executions were set for Thursday. Florida planned to execute Jess Guardado, who pleaded guilty to stabbing a 75-year-old woman in Walton County in 2004, which would be the state's 19th this year, matching its 2025 record. Alabama planned to execute Michael Taylor, 54, for beating an elderly couple to death in Gadsden 35 years ago.

Left-leaning outlets CBS News and NBC News focus on the legal and procedural backdrop. NBC's headline stresses lawyers' concerns about the state's secretive lethal drug supplier, and it gives the 3-2 court split and the dissent's call for a pause. CBS notes the renewed scrutiny of the death penalty after Christa Pike survived two doses in Tennessee, and quotes her statement about her pain afterward. Right-leaning Just the News and Newsmax lead with the three-execution schedule and the crimes. Just the News describes the Florida and Alabama cases in detail, with the victims and circumstances, and does not mention the drug dispute or the court dissent. Both sides report the same basic facts about Weisheit's execution. NewsNation, an alternative source, offers only a brief overview of the three scheduled executions.