--- title: 'Three Executions on November 5 Highlight Concerns about Fairness and Constitutionality of Death Sentences' description: 'On November 5, three people will be put to death in a single day across the United States, all by lethal injection. Indiana officials will execute Jeffrey…' canonical: 'https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/three-executions-on-november-5-highlight-concerns-about-fairness-and-constitutionality-of-death-sentences' section: news date: '2026-11-03T14:51:00-05:00' updated: '2026-11-03T14:51:31-05:00' source: 'Death Penalty Information Center' --- ! On November 5, three people will be put to death in a single day across the United States, all by lethal injection. Indiana officials will execute Jeffrey Weisheit; Florida officials will execute Jesse Guardado; and Alabama officials will execute Michael Taylor. All three cases raise serious questions regarding the fairness of their trials and the constitutionality of their executions. This is the second time this year that three people are scheduled to die on the same day; the same occurred on August 13. Previously, states had not conducted three executions on the same day since January 7, 2010. While states do not coordinate execution scheduling, such an event can be a byproduct of a year with a high number of executions. For instance, in 1999, the year that executions peaked in the United States, there were four days where at least three people were executed—including one day with four executions, the modern record. Execution rates in 2025 and 2026 have been roughly double the annual average of executions for the preceding decade,[1](#fn-1) despite very low numbers of new death sentences and declining public support for the death penalty. The rise has been driven by Florida’s record-setting pace under Gov. Ron DeSantis, which already accounts for 56% of this year’s total. At the same time, a minority of states, just 11 (22%), have conducted any executions over the past two years.[2](#fn-2) ![Bar chart of executions per year in the modern era, showing peak in 1999 at 98 executions, gradual decline to the 10s and 20s, then increase with 47 executions in 2025 and 32 so far in 2026.](https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/VNIuV/full.png) ### Indiana: Victims’ Father Opposes Execution of Jeffrey Weisheit, While Attorneys Reveal Drugs Were Sourced from Pharmacy Cited for Safety Issues Indiana is scheduled to conduct its first execution of the year “before sunrise” on November 5. Jeffrey Weisheit was convicted and sentenced to death in 2013 for the arson killings of Alyssa and Caleb Lynch, his girlfriend’s young children. However, the victims’ father, Steven Lynch, has [strenuously opposed](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/victims-father-calls-for-clemency-for-jeffrey-weisheit) Mr. Weisheit’s execution, writing that “Hurting Mr. Weisheit’s family by executing him is not the outcome my children would want.” He asked that Mr. Weisheit’s death sentence be commuted to life without parole, and addressed him directly, writing, “Jeffrey, I forgive you.” The children’s mother, Lisa Lynch, supports the execution. Mr. Weisheit’s attorneys have raised other concerns in court, including evidence of traumatic brain injuries, mental illness, and childhood trauma that his jury never heard. They asked for the execution to be delayed in order to conduct detailed brain scans; a federal judge authorized investigative funding but denied a transportation request for Mr. Weisheit to be examined, and the state refused to cooperate with the testing. Gov. Mike Braun [denied clemency](https://indianacapitalchronicle.com/2026/11/02/indiana-governor-denies-death-row-inmate-clemency-ahead-of-thursday-execution/) on Monday, November 2. That same day, the Indiana Department of Corrections confirmed that it paid $275,000 for the pentobarbital that will be used to kill Mr. Weisheit. His attorneys identified the supplier as Pharmaneek, an Indianapolis pharmacy that is on probation and facing a potential license suspension. The Indiana Capital Chronicle [reported](https://indianacapitalchronicle.com/2026/11/02/pharmacy-linked-to-indiana-execution-drug-invoice-faces-possible-suspension/) that Pharmaneek failed inspections due to “expired medications” and “inadequate temperature monitoring,” and agreed in March not to compound any drugs while under state review. However, compounding is the very process used by pharmacies to manufacture lethal injection drugs like pentobarbital. The state did not say when the pentobarbital it purchased was manufactured. Pharmaneek is scheduled to appear before a state board to answer allegations that it violated the compounding ban—five days *after* the execution. Mr. Weisheit’s attorneys asked for a temporary reprieve in light of the explosive allegations about Pharmaneek and other concerns about the state’s ability to carry out a lethal injection execution. “Why has the state chosen to pay staggering sums to a drugs supplier that the attorney general’s office is simultaneously seeking to shut down and sanction?” Mr. Weisheit’s defense team said in a statement. “Why should the public have any belief that the drugs are what they are said to be and not compromised\[…\]?” ### Alabama: Michael Taylor’s Jury Never Heard Key Mitigating Evidence Alabama plans to put Michael Taylor to death at 6 p.m. CT in its third execution of the year, despite concerns over the ineffectiveness of his counsel and his youth at the time of the crime. At 19 years old, Michael Taylor went AWOL from the Navy and returned to his small Alabama town, where he robbed and killed an elderly couple he knew. He had no criminal history and quickly confessed. Though the crime shocked his friends and family, they shared evidence with his court-appointed counsel of his difficult upbringing and recent mental distress. However, his counsel had never tried a capital case and failed to recognize the importance of this mitigating evidence. As the Equal Justice Initiative [recounts](https://eji.org/news/michael-taylor-alabama-execution/), his counsel told the jury that his client, Mr. Taylor, was “1000 percent” guilty and “\[t\]here’s nothing that mitigates the crime.” Counsel said that he had a normal childhood and “no mental problems”—after failing to investigate or develop the available evidence establishing the opposite was true. Based on his age, Mr. Taylor would likely not be sentenced to death today. The Death Penalty Information Center (DPI) found that death sentences for youth aged 18-20 have [virtually vanished](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/research/analysis/reports/in-depth/immature-minds-in-a-maturing-society) in the past decade, down to an average of one per year across the entire country. Juries now understand that young people are less culpable—supported by scientific consensus showing the human brain does not fully develop until the mid-20s. Young people aged 18-20 share many of the same cognitive characteristics, such as immaturity and a lack of impulse control, which the U.S. Supreme Court cited in its [decision](https://www.oyez.org/cases/2004/03-633) to bar the use of the death penalty for juveniles. DPI has also found that [members of the military](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/research/analysis/reports/in-depth/forgotten-service-lasting-wounds) are overrepresented on death row, and that many of their juries never meaningfully heard about their service. This is especially true for those now being scheduled for execution, like Mr. Taylor, who were sentenced to death decades ago. Mr. Taylor would be the 7th person executed this year who served in the Armed Forces. ### Florida: Jesse Guardado Would Be At Least 11th Victim of Abusive State-Run School to Be Executed Florida officials have formally apologized for the horrific legacy of the Dozier School for Boys and authorized millions of dollars in reparations for its victims. For over a century, the state-run reform school permitted and concealed rampant physical and sexual abuse, neglect, and even murder. Officials are still investigating unmarked graves on its grounds. Yet this atonement has come too late for men like Jesse Guardado, who is scheduled to become at least the 11th[3](#fn-3) Dozier victim to be executed at 6 p.m. ET on November 5. Mr. Guardado was sent to Dozier as a teenager in the 1970s. By that time, he had already experienced severe trauma: at age 3, his father’s death by suicide, and continued “neglect, sexual abuse, and exposure to drugs that developed into severe addiction,” [according to](https://www.fadp.org/jesse-guardado-overview/) Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP). But Dozier was no respite. A common practice at the school was for guards to force the teenagers to fight each other and bet on the outcomes. Mr. Guardado was forced to work in the school’s slaughterhouse. He was beaten while shackled and raped by a guard. Following his experiences at Dozier, Mr. Guardado’s addiction worsened, and in 2004 he robbed and killed a friend during a two-week crack cocaine binge. He confessed, cooperated with police, and pled guilty. But his jury never heard about his childhood or experiences at Dozier before sentencing him to death. The Marshall Project [reported last year](https://www.themarshallproject.org/2025/07/14/florida-death-row-teens-abuse) that Mr. Guardado is one of at least 34 boys sent to Dozier who ended up on death row. Mr. Guardado would be the 46th person executed by order of Gov. Ron DeSantis, who denied clemency. No capital prisoner has won clemency in Florida in over four decades. In a U.S. Supreme Court [petition](https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/26/26A623/431399/20261030183227102_GUARDADO%20SCOTUS%20Application%20for%20Stay%20FINAL.pdf), Mr. Guardado’s attorneys noted that the Court had found that a clemency scheme where “a state official flipped a coin” would be unconstitutional. “In Florida,” Mr. Guardado’s attorneys wrote, “\[t\]here is no due process when…the coin flipped says denied on both sides.” [Jesse Guardado: Overview](https://www.fadp.org/jesse-guardado-overview/), Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, accessed Nov. 3, 2026; Casey Smith, [Indiana governor denies death row inmate clemency ahead of Thursday execution](https://indianacapitalchronicle.com/2026/11/02/indiana-governor-denies-death-row-inmate-clemency-ahead-of-thursday-execution/), Indiana Capital Chronicle, Nov. 2, 2026; Casey Smith, [Pharmacy linked to Indiana execution drug invoice faces possible suspension](https://indianacapitalchronicle.com/2026/11/02/pharmacy-linked-to-indiana-execution-drug-invoice-faces-possible-suspension/), Indiana Capital Chronicle, Nov. 2, 2026; [Alabama Plans to Execute Michael Taylor](https://eji.org/news/michael-taylor-alabama-execution/), Equal Justice Initiative, Oct. 30, 2026; [Stay Application](https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/26/26A623/431399/20261030183227102_GUARDADO%20SCOTUS%20Application%20for%20Stay%20FINAL.pdf), Guardado v. Florida, 610 U.S. \_\_\_ (Oct. 30, 2026); Casey Smith, [‘Jeffrey, I forgive you’: Father of slain children supports clemency for Indiana death row inmate](https://indianacapitalchronicle.com/2026/10/15/jeffrey-i-forgive-you-father-of-slain-children-supports-clemency-for-indiana-death-row-inmate/), Indiana Capital Chronicle, Oct. 15, 2026; Casey Smith, [Indiana death row inmate seeks execution delay for brain scans ahead of clemency hearings](https://indianacapitalchronicle.com/2026/10/13/indiana-death-row-inmate-seeks-execution-delay-for-brain-scans-ahead-of-clemency-hearings/), Indiana Capital Chronicle, Oct. 13, 2026; Leonora Lapeter Anton, [Dozens of Teens Who Spent Time at Abusive Florida Reform School Ended Up on Death Row](https://www.themarshallproject.org/2025/07/14/florida-death-row-teens-abuse), The Marshall Project, July 14, 2025; [Reply Brief](https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/17/17-9284/54173/20180713120147700_Guardado_SCOTUS_Reply%20Brief_Final.pdf), Guardado v. Florida, 586 U.S. \_\_\_ (July 13, 2018); [*Roper v. Simmons*](https://www.oyez.org/cases/2004/03-633), 543 U.S. 551 (2005); [Taylor v. State](https://law.justia.com/cases/alabama/court-of-appeals-criminal/2004/cr-02-0706-0-0.html), 10 So. 3d 1037 (Ala. Ct. Crim. App. 2004). Footnotes 1. The average annual execution rate from 2015-24 was 21.3 people. 47 executions occurred in 2025, and 32 have occurred in 2026 with nine more executions scheduled before the end of the year.  2. Learn more about executions amidst declining public support in our [2025 Year-End Report](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/research/analysis/reports/year-end-reports/the-death-penalty-in-2025) and [2026 Mid-Year Update](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/dpis-2026-mid-year-update-jurors-continue-to-reject-death-sentences-amidst-increased-secrecy-and-disinformation), and look for DPI’s 2026 Year-End Report this December.  3. The Marshall Project [reported](https://www.themarshallproject.org/2025/07/14/florida-death-row-teens-abuse) ahead of Michael Bell’s execution on July 15, 2025 that at least nine former Dozier residents had been executed. Mr. Bell became the tenth, making Mr. Guardado the 11th. On September 30, 2025 Florida executed Victor Jones, who was sent to the related Florida School for Boys at Okeechobee, whose victims are also entitled to reparations. The next person scheduled for execution in Florida after Mr. Guardado, on November 19, is Dozier victim Thomas Overton. The Marshall Project noted that records of Dozier attendees are not public until 50 years after their departure, so there could be additional executed Dozier victims whose abuse has not been recognized or made public.