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By Khaleda Rahman
National Correspondent
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A Newsweek map shows where executions have taken place in the United States in 2026, as three states put inmates to death on Thursday—the first time that has happened in almost 16 years.
Oklahoma and Tennessee executed inmates via lethal injection within 30 minutes of each other on Thursday morning.
Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez, 70, was executed in Oklahoma for the killing of his girlfriend. It was the state’s third execution this year. Anthony Darrell Hines was executed in Tennessee for the 1985 killing of a motel maid.
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Alabama carried out its first execution of the year later on Thursday, putting Jeremy Williams to death for the 2021 rape and murder of a five-year-old girl via lethal injection.
The last time three executions were carried out on the same day was on January 7, 2010, when Louisiana, Ohio and Texas put inmates to death.
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It comes amid a rise in executions in the U.S. in recent years. Executions in 2025 reached the highest level recorded in the U.S. since 2009, with 47 people executed in 11 states. Florida accounted for much of the surge, with 19 executions.
Florida is leading the nation in executions once again this year, and carried out two executions on the same day in July.
Following Thursday’s executions, 22 executions have been carried out in six states this year—12 in Florida, four in Texas, three in Oklahoma and one each in Alabama, Arizona and Tennessee, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. At least 10 more executions are scheduled to take place before the end of the year, including four in Texas and three in Florida.
Executions That Go 'Badly Wrong'
Maya Foa, CEO of Reprieve US, noted that Alabama, Oklahoma and Tennessee all have a recent history of executions “that went visibly and horrifically awry.”
"When states rush executions, it is inevitable some will go badly wrong. Execution sites are becoming torture chambers, with sickening regularity,” Foa said in a statement to Newsweek.
“In their determination to kill at all costs, Tennessee, Alabama, and Oklahoma officials ignored a string of horrific botched executions that have made even supporters of the death penalty in these states call for a halt. The Trump Administration's grotesque claim that every available method of execution is humane asks us to witness men dying in agony and pretend it's not happening."
Alabama
Alabama executed Jeremy Williams, 42, for the 2021 rape and murder of the five-year-old Kamarie Holland.
Williams strangled Holland on December 13, 2021, after offering her mother $2,500 to sexually abuse the girl, and filmed his attack, prosecutors said.
His execution took place after Williams had written the Alabama attorney general’s office seeking an immediate execution date.
“I want to thank God for forgiving me for my sins so I can meet him in peace,” Williams said on the gurney.
The Associated Press reported that he rocked his head back and forth, smiled and appeared to sing or speak before becoming still. He was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m CDT.
“The unspeakable nature of this crime is exactly why we have the death penalty statute,” Gov. Kay Ivey said in a statement. “Kamarie Holland is an innocent girl who is no longer with us, but she finally received justice tonight. May God bless little Kamarie Holland.”
The girl’s mother is serving a 20-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to sex trafficking.
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Oklahoma
Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez, 70, received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in McAlester in Oklahoma. He was convicted of murdering his girlfriend Olimpia Fisher, 43, at their Oklahoma City home in 2003. His execution came after Cuesta-Rodriguez said he regretted killing Fisher and told a board he did not want clemency.
Cuesta-Rodriguez did not have a final statement, but turned his head toward two relatives watching and mouthed “I love you,” the AP reported. He was pronounced dead at 10:13 a.m. after several minutes of labored breathing.
In a statement provided to Newsweek, the Cuesta-Rodriguez’s family and friends said he had lived “a life of extraordinary beauty and tenderness within the darkest of conditions.”
He “was a different man from the one who committed his horrible crime—remorseful every single day, burdened by the weight of what he had done—but defined by decades of living humbly, gently, and with unwavering love and devotion to his family and to inmates far worse off than himself,” the statement said.
Tennessee
Anthony Darrell Hines was executed in Tennessee for the stabbing death of 54-year-old Catherine Jean Jenkins as she worked as a maid at a motel in Kingston Springs. Asked if he had any final words, Hines said “not right now, thank you.”
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“Tell my son hello,” he then said.
The AP reported that witnesses heard groans and heavy breathing while the adviser put her hands on his shoulders and prayed. Hines was pronounced dead at 10:43 a.m.
Hines's attorneys had sought to block the execution, saying his health issues, including two strokes that left him partially paralyzed, would increase the risk of difficulties at his execution. His attorneys also argued that the doctor who oversaw the abandoned execution of Tony Carruthers was unqualified.
Tennessee called off the execution of Carruthers in May after execution team tried and failed for over an hour to establish an intravenous line required to administer lethal drugs.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee declined to halt the execution after the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled against a stay of execution. Hines's execution went ahead after the U.S. Supreme Court also declined an application for a stay.
“After deliberate consideration of Anthony Darrell Hines’s request for clemency, and after a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence of the state of Tennessee and do not plan to intervene,” Lee said in a statement on Tuesday, the Tennessee Lookout reported.
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