Oklahoma, Tennessee Execute Inmates in Triple Execution Day
Oklahoma and Tennessee carried out executions within 30 minutes of each other Thursday morning, marking the first time in 16 years that three states scheduled lethal injections on the same day in the United States. Alabama was set to execute a third inmate later in the evening, according to AP News.
Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez, 70, was pronounced dead at 10:13 a.m. CDT at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, while Anthony Darrell Hines, 66, was pronounced dead at 10:43 a.m. CDT at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. The last time three executions were held on the same day was Jan. 7, 2010, when Louisiana, Ohio and Texas put inmates to death.
Oklahoma Executes Man for 2003 Killing of Girlfriend
Cuesta-Rodriguez was the third person put to death this year in Oklahoma and the 20th under Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who leaves office in January after eight years. He was convicted of fatally shooting his common-law wife, Olimpia Fisher, 43, at their Oklahoma City home on May 31, 2003, as The Oklahoman reported.
Fisher had planned to leave Cuesta-Rodriguez when he shot her in one eye and then waited about eight minutes as she screamed for help before firing the fatal shot into her other eye. Her daughters, Cinthya Allen and Katya Wallis, said they hope the execution brings awareness to preventing domestic violence.
“Our faith in Jesus has allowed us to forgive,” they said in a statement. “We hope this tragedy and loss reminds everyone of the importance of domestic violence awareness.”
Cuesta-Rodriguez, who came to the United States from Cuba during the 1980 Mariel Boatlift, told the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board in July that he did not want clemency. “It’s time for me to pay for what I did,” he said at the hearing, where the board voted 3-1 against recommending mercy. His attorneys had argued he suffered from brain damage, post-traumatic stress disorder and major depression with psychotic episodes.
From the gurney, Cuesta-Rodriguez mouthed “I love you” to relatives but had no official last words. Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Justin Farris described the 11-minute execution as “unremarkable.”
Tennessee Executes Man for 1985 Murder of Motel Maid
Hines was executed for the 1985 murder of Catherine Jean Jenkins, a 54-year-old motel maid and mother of four who was stabbed 13 times at the Cebon Motel in Kingston Springs, Tennessee. He was sentenced to death in 1986, won an appeal for a new sentencing hearing, and was again sentenced to death in 1989, as The Tennessean reported.
Hines’ execution came just three months after Tennessee’s attempted lethal injection of another inmate, Tony Carruthers, was called off after medical staff failed to establish a backup IV line for more than an hour. Hines’ attorneys argued the same doctor was unqualified and likely to botch his execution, given his partial paralysis from two strokes. Gov. Bill Lee declined to intervene, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case on execution morning.
Hines said “not right now, thank you” when first asked if he had final words, then said, “Tell my son hello” before he died. His son witnessed the execution, having reconnected with his father only four days prior after not seeing him since age 3.
Jenkins’ son, Dennis Jenkins, spoke emotionally after the execution. “I hope he did suffer. I hope he felt severe pain because what he did to my mother is nothing compared to what he may have just gone through,” he said. “He stabbed her 13 times, one of which went all the way through and came out her back. He then went on to sexually assault her with the same knife that he had just stabbed her with.”
Her daughter, Melissa Jenkins, said the execution “does finally bring justice,” though she acknowledged the family will “never truly” move forward from the loss.
Alabama Scheduled to Execute Man for Murder of 5-Year-Old
Alabama was scheduled to execute Jeremy Williams, 42, by lethal injection at approximately 6 p.m. CT at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, as WSFA reported. Williams pleaded guilty to the 2021 rape and murder of 5-year-old Kamarie Holland in Phenix City, Alabama, and declined to appeal, asking for his death sentence to be carried out.
Prosecutors said Williams raped and strangled Holland after offering her mother $2,500 for the child to perform a sex act. He filmed his attack on the girl and kept her body to continue to abuse, prosecutors said. Williams also was a suspect in the 2005 death of his infant daughter in Alaska.
“To see on video what he did to this baby, what a grown man could do to a child, it’s shocking, it’s horrible, it’s disgusting,” Russell County District Attorney Richard Chancey said. “It’s just a level of evil.”
About 10% of executed inmates are so-called volunteers who drop appeals, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The time between Williams’ 2024 conviction and his scheduled execution is unusually brief compared to most death row inmates who spend many years or decades on death row.
A Resurgent Death Penalty
The triple execution day reflects a broader resurgence of capital punishment in the United States. Executions rose from 25 in 2024 to 47 in 2025, the highest number since 2009, with Florida leading the way with 19 executions, as The Guardian reported.
“You look at the country as a whole, you’ve just got this little pocket of five or six states that are using the death penalty, executing people, and a small number of states that are still imposing new death sentences,” said Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, in an interview with CP24.
President Donald Trump has also played a role in the resurgence. On his first day back in office in January 2025, Trump signed a sweeping executive order directing the attorney general to help states obtain lethal injection drugs and to seek the death penalty in appropriate federal cases, as AP News reported. Trump called capital punishment “an essential tool for deterring and punishing those who would commit the most heinous crimes and acts of lethal violence against American citizens.”
Death penalty observers say double or triple executions are largely coincidental scheduling, but the convergence of three executions on a single day underscores the renewed appetite for state killings in a small but active group of states.
What to Watch For
Alabama’s execution of Williams, if it proceeds, would be the state’s first of the year. A nitrogen gas execution was halted in June after a federal judge ruled the method unconstitutional, forcing Alabama to return to lethal injection. The outcome of Williams’ execution will be closely watched, as will Tennessee’s handling of two more scheduled executions later this year, including the Sept. 30 execution of Christa Pike, the only woman on the state’s death row.
As USA TODAY noted, of 94 executions held since 2024, 64% of the victims involved were women and girls — a statistic that underscores the domestic violence dimension of many capital cases. The families of victims in Thursday’s executions expressed a mix of closure and enduring grief, while opponents of the death penalty continued to question whether the state should be in the business of taking lives.