Three death row inmates are set to be executed by lethal injection today (August 13), marking the first time in 16 years that three US states have carried out capital punishment on the same day. The executions are scheduled in Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Alabama.
Rare triple execution
The last time three states executed people on the same day was in 2010. “It’s very unusual,” said Robin Maher, executive director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.
The first two executions are scheduled for 3pm UK time. Anthony Darrell Hines is set to be executed at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Tennessee, and Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. Tennessee and Oklahoma are expected to begin their processes at roughly the same time. Media witnesses typically enter around the scheduled time, with official confirmation usually following 30 to 45 minutes later.
The three cases
The third execution, of Jeremy Williams, is listed for 11pm UK time, at Holman Correctional Facility in Alabama. Because Williams has reportedly waived his appeals, there are not expected to be last-minute legal delays.
Hines is set to die for the 1985 stabbing murder of Catherine Jean Jenkins, a 54-year-old motel maid. He was sentenced to death in 1986, won a re-sentencing appeal, then was sentenced to death again in 1989, USA Today reported. His lawyers have argued his frail health - including two strokes, partial paralysis and blindness in one eye - could complicate the IV process, but Governor Bill Lee refused to halt the execution. The victim’s daughter has waited decades as the case dragged on.
Earlier the same day, Oklahoma plans to execute 71-year-old Cuesta-Rodriguez for the 2003 shooting murder of his common-law wife, Olimpia Fisher. Prosecutors said he shot her in the eye as her daughter watched - then fired again minutes later while police tried to get inside. Clemency was denied 3–1, after Cuesta-Rodriguez told the victim’s daughters he did not want mercy and said it was time to pay.
In Alabama, 42-year-old Williams is due to be executed for the 2021 rape and murder of five-year-old Kamarie Holland. He pleaded guilty and requested the sentence be carried out. The child’s mother is serving 20 years for sex trafficking linked to the case.
Context and impact
Experts say the triple is largely a scheduling coincidence - but one that lands amid a recent rise in executions driven by a small cluster of states and a federal push, since 2025, to speed up death-penalty pipelines and secure lethal-injection drugs.
