U.S.A.: Three executions in one single day—in the morning in Oklahoma and Tennessee, and in the evening in Alabama

For the first time in 16 years, three prisoners were executed on the same day in the United States—Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez in Oklahoma, Anthony Darrell Hines in Tennessee, and Jeremy Williams in Alabama.

Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez

On Thursday morning, 70-year-old Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez was executed by lethal injection in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. He had been sentenced to death for shooting his 43-year-old partner to death on the night of May 31, 2003, in front of her pregnant daughter.

In the weeks leading up to the crime, Cuesta-Rodriguez had become increasingly obsessive, controlling, and violent, and was convinced that his partner was cheating on him with a coworker. On the night of the crime, he had drunk a bottle of tequila before an argument broke out and ultimately led to the violent act.

At the hearing before the parole board last month, Cuesta-Rodriguez’s attorneys argued that their client had endured an abusive childhood in Cuba and suffers from brain damage, post-traumatic stress disorder, and severe depression with psychotic episodes. Dementia has now also set in.

However, Cuesta-Rodriguez said at the hearing that the last thing he deserved was clemency. “You must believe that I deserve to suffer. And you’re right,” he explained, addressing the victim’s daughters. “It’s time for me to atone for my actions.”

Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez’s family and friends, on the other hand, released this statement: “He was a completely different person from the one who committed his terrible crime—tormented by remorse every single day, weighed down by the burden of his actions— yet shaped by decades of a humble, gentle life and by unwavering love and devotion to his family and to fellow inmates who were far worse off than he was.

His legacy will not be measured by his darkest moment, but by the countless moments that followed—by the letters that always reached their destination, by the works of art he created behind these walls, and by the love and light he consistently and unconditionally radiated, proving that even from a place of such darkness, the goodness and redemption of a single human being can still send ripples out into the world.”

Anthony Darrell Hines

On Thursday morning, 66-year-old Anthony Darrell Hines was executed by lethal injection in the U.S. state of Tennessee. He had been sentenced to death for allegedly stabbing and robbing a 54-year-old hotel employee in March 1985. While Hines admitted to stealing her car, he maintained that he did not commit the murder.

The execution of Anthony Darrell Hines received particular attention in the run-up to the event because Tennessee had been forced to halt the execution of Tony Carruthers just a few weeks earlier after even Dr. Mark Fowler was unable to establish a second intravenous line.

Tennessee refused to disclose whether the same doctor was again scheduled to perform Hines’ execution. Concerns were also raised because Hines was paralyzed on one side following several strokes, which could have once again made it difficult to establish a second intravenous line.

Anthony Darrell Hines’ attorney stated in an obituary: “Darrell’s family and his legal team cared deeply for him. He had to endure a childhood marked by extreme poverty and abuse. His family and those around him failed to ensure that he had enough to eat and a safe, stable home.

Darrell bore the scars of years of abuse, but he could still make you laugh. He was a masterful storyteller. He loved fantasy books and the escape those stories provided him. He was funny. He was loyal. He lived by a code. He was a child of God.”

Jeremy Williams

On Thursday evening, 42-year-old Jeremy Tremaine Williams was executed by lethal injection in the U.S. state of Alabama. On December 13, 2021, he had brutally abused, raped, and murdered a five-year-old girl while filming himself during the crime.

Williams pleaded guilty to this and other crimes and demanded the death penalty for himself from the very beginning. He had instructed his attorneys not to take any action in his defense. At the first opportunity, he fired his defense attorneys, waived his right to further appeals after the mandatory direct appeal, and demanded that the sentence be carried out as soon as possible.

Williams had offered the victim’s mother $2,500 to allow him to abuse the young child for one hour. The drug-addicted mother agreed—she is serving a 20-year prison sentence for her role in the crime.

Prior to Williams’s scheduled execution, the girl’s father was charged with endangering his child for violating a custody order by allowing his daughter to go with her mother, who did not have custody at the time. Due to this pending charge, the victim’s father was not permitted to attend Williams’ execution.

The father stated that denying him this opportunity would be tantamount to denying him a moment to come to terms with his trauma. He also explained that he had allowed the children to have contact with their mother solely because he wanted to give them as normal a childhood as possible; he had not known that the mother was using drugs and had never expected her to harm the children.

Sources:
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/08/13/triple-execution-oklahoma-tennessee-alabama/91280280007/
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/oklahoma-carries-out-first-of-3-executions-scheduled-for-the-same-day-in-the-u-s
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/13/executions-oklahoma-alabama-tennessee
https://www.memphisflyer.com/state-executes-hines-despite-calls-for-protocol-review/
https://abc3340.com/news/local/governor-kay-ivey-alabama-inmate-jeremy-williams-executed-for-2021-child-murder-corrections-commissioner-greg-lovelace-august-13-2026-5-year-old-kamarie-holland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kamarie_Holland