3 US prisoners are set to die on the same day as executions surge

International

FOR the first time in 16 years, three US prisoners are scheduled to face execution on the same day.

Anthony Darrell Hines, 66, Jeremy Williams, 41, and Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez, 71, are scheduled to be put to death on Thursday in Tennessee, Alabama and Oklahoma, respectively.

The executions come as the number of people put to death in the US has climbed sharply. There were 47 executions across 11 states in 2025, compared with 25 in 2024 and more than four times the number recorded in 2021.

President Donald Trump has long backed capital punishment, calling it “an essential tool for deterring and punishing those who would commit the most heinous crimes and acts of lethal violence against American citizens”.

During his first term, Trump ended a nearly two-decade federal moratorium and oversaw 13 federal executions. On the first day of his second term in 2025, he signed an executive order seeking to reinstate the federal death penalty. No federal executions have followed, however.

The Justice Department has expanded execution protocols to include firing squads and reinstated lethal injection, while saying it has streamlined internal procedures for death penalty cases. Trump’s order also encouraged states to pursue capital punishment in cases involving the killing of law enforcement officers and directed the attorney general to ensure adequate supplies of lethal injection drugs.

Justin Mazzola of Amnesty International USA said the administration’s full impact may not be known for years because of the time required for cases and appeals.

Florida has been the biggest driver of the national increase, accounting for about 40% of executions in 2025 and 12 of the 19 carried out so far this year. Robin Maher of the Death Penalty Information Center attributed the state’s outlier status to Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who has backed changes making death sentences easier to impose.

Yet support for capital punishment is weakening. A Gallup poll found 52% of Americans consider it morally acceptable, the lowest level since the 1970s. Death sentences have also plunged from more than 300 in some years during the 1990s to 23 in 2025.

“That tells us something very important: These are regular citizens that are sitting in judgment of people who are accused of committing the worst possible crimes, and then deciding what sentence fits those crimes,” Maher said in a BBC report.

The scheduled executions also come amid scrutiny of lethal injection. The Death Penalty Information Center says more than a third of US executions in 2022 were botched or highly problematic.

Hines, who maintains his innocence, is scheduled to undergo the same protocol involved in Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute Tony Von Carruthers in May. Williams has dismissed his attorneys and volunteered for execution, while Cuesta-Rodriguez has sought no clemency.

Whether all three executions proceed remains subject to final legal action or reprieve.(MyTVCebu)