Alabama, Florida and Indiana each executed a death row inmate on Thursday in a rare triple execution day that marked the second such occurrence this year.

Florida carried out its 19th execution of 2026 when Jesse Guardado, 64, was put to death by lethal injection at the state prison in Starke. Guardado had pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing 75-year-old Jackie Malone in her Walton County home in 2004 during a robbery to obtain money for drugs. He was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. ET.

Hours earlier, Indiana executed Jeffrey Weisheit, 50, for the 2010 arson murders of his girlfriend's two children, 8-year-old Alyssa Lynch and 5-year-old Caleb Lynch. Weisheit was pronounced dead at 12:45 a.m. at the state prison in Michigan City.

Alabama executed Michael Shannon Taylor, 55, later that evening for the 1991 beating deaths of an elderly couple, 83-year-old Ivan Moore and 79-year-old Lucille Moore, during a home robbery. Taylor was pronounced dead at 7:10 p.m. ET.

The executions bring the national total to 35 this year across seven states, with Florida accounting for more than half. The state has pursued capital punishment aggressively under outgoing Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has prioritized carrying out long-delayed sentences to deliver justice for victims' families.

This year's pace reflects a broader uptick in executions since 2025, coinciding with a political environment favoring stronger law enforcement measures. In contrast, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, announced on the same day plans to commute all 548 death sentences in his state to life without parole.

The last triple execution day before 2026 occurred in 2010. Officials have noted that such clustered dates result from independent scheduling by states rather than coordination.

All executions this year have used lethal injection, the method employed in the vast majority of modern U.S. capital cases.