Three men were put to death by lethal injection across the U.S. on Thursday, marking the first time since 2010 that three executions occurred on a single day. Tennessee and Oklahoma administered lethal injections within 30 minutes of each other, with Alabama following hours later.

The Tennessee prisoner was executed for killing a motel maid in 1985, and the Oklahoma inmate for the 2003 murder of his girlfriend. In Alabama, a man was put to death Thursday evening for killing a 5-year-old girl he had paid her mother to abuse.

Although three executions in one day stemmed from a scheduling coincidence, it reflects a broader rise in U.S. capital punishment. Eleven states executed 47 people in 2025, the highest total since 2009. Following Thursday’s executions, 22 inmates have been put to death this year, with nearly a dozen more scheduled.

The last time three executions were carried out on the same day was on Jan. 7, 2010, when Louisiana, Ohio and Texas put inmates to death. Three executions were scheduled on the same day in 2018, but only one went forward after a Texas man was granted a reprieve and prison officials in Alabama had problems with the IV line.

Florida executed two men on the same day in July and has put 31 prisoners to death since the start of 2025.

Oklahoma prisoner said he regretted 2003 killing of girlfriend

Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez, 70, died by lethal injection at the state’s penitentiary in rural McAlester, the third person put to death this year in Oklahoma.

Cuesta-Rodriguez turned his head to look at his two relatives who attended and mouthed “I love you” but said he had no last words. His breathing was labored for several minutes before he was pronounced dead at 10:13 a.m. CDT.

Convicted of fatally shooting his girlfriend at their Oklahoma City home in 2003, Cuesta-Rodriguez had said he regretted killing Olimpia Fisher and told a board he didn’t want clemency. His attorneys said he had a difficult childhood in Cuba and suffered from brain damage and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Fisher, 43, planned to leave Cuesta-Rodriguez when he shot her in one eye and then he waited about eight minutes as she screamed for help before firing the fatal shot into her other eye.

Fisher’s daughters, Cinthya Allen and Katya Wallis, said in a statement that they hoped the execution brings awareness to preventing domestic violence and they honor their mother by “raising our families to reflect the love and faith in God that she taught us.”

Tennessee man challenged execution after previous one was halted

Anthony Darrell Hines received an injection in Tennessee for the 1985 murder of Catherine Jean Jenkins. He was pronounced dead at 10:43 a.m. CDT.

Hines stabbed Jenkins to death while the 54-year-old was working as a motel maid in Kingston Springs.

Hines said “not right now, thank you” when asked if he had final words, then said, “Tell my son hello” before he died. Hines’ son witnessed the execution. He reconnected with his father four days earlier after not seeing him since he was 3 years old.

About four minutes after the curtain to the death chamber opened, Hines asked his spiritual adviser: “How long do I have?” Not long afterward, witnesses heard groans and heavy breathing as the spiritual adviser put her hands on his shoulders and prayed over him.

Afterward, Jenkins’ son detailed how his mother had only a plastic spray bottle to defend herself against the knife attack.

“I hope he felt severe pain because what he did to my mother is nothing compared to what he may have just gone through,” Dennis Jenkins said.

Hines’ execution comes just three months after the attempted lethal injection of another man was stopped after medical staff couldn’t establish a backup IV line for more than an hour.

Hines, 66, appealed unsuccessfully to the governor and the courts, saying that the doctor who oversaw the May execution was unqualified and likely to botch his execution as well.

Alabama man asked to be executed after pleading guilty to girl’s murder

Alabama executed Jeremy Williams for the 2021 rape and murder of the young Georgia girl. He was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m. CDT following the injection.

“I want to thank God for forgiving me for my sins so I can meet him in peace,” Williams said in his final words. He rocked his head back and forth and smiled and appeared to sing or speak before slowing become still on the gurney.

A member of Williams’ family, who was seated near the media, cried quietly throughout the execution.

Williams, who pleaded guilty to killing Kamarie Holland, had declined to appeal and requested that his death sentence be carried out. In letters to the Alabama attorney general’s office, Williams sought an immediate execution date so his victim’s family “may have some type of closure and satisfaction which they deserve.”

Williams, 42, raped and strangled Holland after offering her mother $2,500 for the child to perform a sex act, prosecutors said, adding he filmed his attack.

“To see on video what he did to this baby, what a grown man could do to a child, it’s shocking, it’s horrible, it’s disgusting,” Russell County District Attorney Richard Chancey said. “It’s just a level of evil.”

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, in a statement after the execution, described the crime as “evil.”

“The unspeakable nature of this crime is exactly why we have the death penalty statute in the state of Alabama,” she said.

The girl’s mother is serving a 20-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to sex trafficking.

Williams also was a suspect in the 2005 death of his infant daughter in Alaska but charges were not filed until 2022.

Corey Holland, Kamarie’s father, said she was an exuberant child who loved princesses and made people laugh.

“She loved playing dress-up, all her little Halloween costumes and her princess stuff I got her. She liked anything girly,” Corey Holland said.

It was Alabama’s first execution of the year. A nitrogen gas execution was put on hold in June after a federal judge ruled the method unconstitutional.