Three States Schedule Same-Day Executions, First Since 2010
Tennessee, Alabama and Oklahoma are each set to carry out lethal injections Thursday, the first time three U.S. states have held executions on the same day since 2010.
The Morning Brief Desk · August 13, 2026 · Based on reporting by NPR News
Three men are scheduled to die by lethal injection Thursday in three different states, marking the first same-day triple execution in the United States in 16 years, according to a USA Today analysis of Death Penalty Information Center data.
In Oklahoma, 70-year-old Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez is set to be executed for the 2003 fatal shooting of his girlfriend, Olimpia Fisher. Al Jazeera reported he would be the third person put to death in the state this year and the 20th under Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt. In Tennessee, Anthony Darrell Hines faces execution for the 1985 murder of Catherine Jean Jenkins, a 54-year-old motel maid in Kingston Springs. Alabama plans to execute 42-year-old Jeremy Williams for the 2021 rape and murder of 5-year-old Kamarie Holland.
Williams' case moved unusually quickly. Prosecutors said he offered the girl's mother $2,500 for the child to perform a sex act, then raped and strangled her. He pleaded guilty, directed his attorneys to mount no defense at his 2024 trial, declined to appeal and asked that his death sentence be carried out. Most death row inmates are executed only after years or decades of appeals. "It's very unusual," Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said of triple executions, telling USA Today that same-day timing is typically coincidental.
The context
The last time three states executed inmates on the same day was in 2010, when Louisiana, Ohio and Texas each carried out a death sentence. While two same-day executions occasionally occur, most execution days in the U.S. involve a single inmate, according to USA Today.
Each of Thursday's cases followed a different path. Hines was sentenced to death in 1986, won a new sentencing hearing, and was sentenced to death again in 1989, Al Jazeera reported. Cuesta-Rodriguez was convicted for a 2003 killing. Williams was sentenced in 2024 and is being executed roughly five years after his crime because he waived his appeals.
All three men were convicted of killing women or girls. A USA Today analysis found that of 94 executions held since 2024, including this week's, 64 percent involved female victims. Al Jazeera reported that the 16-year gap between same-day triple executions points to an acceleration in the pace of U.S. capital punishment.
Why it matters
The convergence comes as the death penalty's use and its public standing move in different directions. Eleven states carried out executions in 2025, and if the Tennessee and Alabama injections proceed, six states will have executed inmates in 2026, Al Jazeera reported. At the same time, a Gallup poll found about 52 percent of Americans consider the death penalty morally acceptable, the lowest figure since the 1970s. Thursday's schedule offers a concrete measure of how frequently states are now carrying out sentences, even as observers stress the same-day timing itself is coincidence rather than coordination.
What’s next
The three executions are scheduled for Thursday, with Oklahoma's set to occur earlier in the day than Alabama's, according to USA Today. Whether all three proceed as planned remains to be seen; the sources note the 2026 state count depends on the Tennessee and Alabama injections taking place. Broader questions to watch include whether the recent pace of executions continues and how declining public support, as measured by Gallup, shapes state-level death penalty policy.
Sources
NPR News — 3 men set for lethal injection on same day in Tennessee, Alabama and Oklahoma
Three men in Tennessee, Alabama and Oklahoma are scheduled for lethal injection Thursday in a rare convergence of same-day executions in the US.
USA Today — 3 inmates to be executed on same day for first time in 16 years
Oklahoma, Alabama and Tennessee are each carrying out an execution on the same day -- the first such triple execution since 2010.
Al Jazeera — Three US states to hold executions on same day for first time since 2010
The last three same-day executions happened 16 years ago, in Louisiana, Ohio and Texas, marking a notable acceleration in US capital punishment.
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