Three men are scheduled to die by lethal injection today in three different states: Tennessee, Alabama and Oklahoma. It’s the first time since January 7, 2010, when Louisiana, Ohio and Texas each carried out an execution on the same day, that this many states have moved forward together. A similar lineup was attempted in 2018, but it fell apart: Texas granted a reprieve, Alabama ran into problems inserting an IV line, and only one of the three executions actually happened.
Anthony Darrell Hines, 66, was sentenced to death in Tennessee for the 1985 stabbing death of Catherine Jean Jenkins, a motel housekeeper in Kingston Springs. His original 1986 sentence was reinstated in 1989 after an appeal. He asked for a stay, citing his health (he’s had two strokes that left him partially paralyzed) and pointing to a botched execution attempt at the same prison in May 2024, when staff spent more than an hour trying and failing to set a backup IV line for another inmate, Tony Carruthers. The Tennessee Supreme Court turned down his request last week. « All eyes really are on Tennessee at this moment because of the problem that happened, » said Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
In Alabama, Jeremy Williams, 42, pleaded guilty to raping and killing 5 year old Kamarie Holland in 2021, in Georgia; he was also facing charges tied to the 2005 death of his infant daughter in Alaska. He waived his appeals and asked that the execution move forward, what’s known as a « volunteer » case, which accounts for roughly one in ten U.S. executions. The gap between his 2024 conviction and today’s execution is unusually short.
In Oklahoma, Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez, 70, was convicted of killing his girlfriend, Olimpia Fisher, in 2003, shooting her in both eyes. His lawyers sought clemency, pointing to childhood trauma and mental health problems, but the state’s Pardon and Parole Board voted 3 to 1 against recommending it. A prosecutor argued he « left a trail of destruction of children. » Cuesta-Rodriguez has since expressed remorse to the victim’s daughters.
Executions used to overlap far more often than they do today. What makes this week unusual isn’t that three states have scheduled dates close together, that still happens, but that none of them backed off, got a stay, or hit a legal snag that pushed things out of sync. States now rarely coordinate or even track each other’s calendars, so a same day pileup like this one is mostly coincidence.
It’s also happening against the backdrop of a busier death penalty system than the U.S. has seen in years. In 2025, 47 people were executed across 11 states, the highest total since 2009, led by Florida with 19. Alabama, South Carolina and Texas each carried out five, Tennessee three, and several other states one or two apiece. So far in 2026, 19 executions have taken place, all in just four states: Florida (11), Texas (3), Oklahoma (2) and Arizona (1). That pattern points to a system that’s become more concentrated rather than more widespread. Only five or six states are actively using the death penalty at all, with Florida now driving most of the activity. Lethal injection remains the near universal method, even as it keeps running into trouble: in June 2024, a planned nitrogen gas execution in Alabama was halted after a federal judge ruled the method unconstitutional.