Three men convicted of murder in three different US states are scheduled to be executed on Thursday, marking the first time in 16 years that three executions are set to take place on the same day in the United States.
The inmates are 66-year-old Anthony Darrell Hines in Tennessee, 41-year-old Jeremy Williams in Alabama and 71-year-old Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez in Oklahoma.
Their scheduled executions come amid a sharp increase in capital punishment across the US. In 2025, 47 people were executed in 11 states, up from 25 in 2024.
Florida has accounted for a significant share of the increase. Twelve of the 19 executions recorded in the US so far in 2026 have taken place in the state, with Governor Ron DeSantis backing measures that make it easier to impose and carry out death sentences.
President Donald Trump has also strongly supported the death penalty. After returning to office in 2025, he signed an executive order reinstating the federal death penalty and directed officials to strengthen its implementation.
However, support for capital punishment among Americans has declined. A Gallup poll cited by the BBC found that 52 per cent of Americans consider the death penalty morally acceptable, the lowest level recorded since the 1970s.
Death sentences issued by juries have also fallen sharply, from more than 300 annually during the 1990s to just 23 in 2025.
The planned executions have also renewed concerns about execution methods, particularly lethal injection, following several problematic procedures in recent years.
Hines, who maintains his innocence, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection in Tennessee, while Williams and Cuesta-Rodriguez are also set to be executed by lethal injection in Alabama and Oklahoma respectively.
BBC
