Three states set to hold executions on same day for first time since 2010

Aug. 13 (UPI) — Three states are set to execute prisoners Thursday in Tennessee, Alabama and Oklahoma.

The three men, all convicted of murder, will be executed by lethal injection. Two of them have not fought their executions, and one maintains his innocence.

The last time three people were executed on the same day was 16 years ago, USA Today reported. The data came from the Death Penalty Information Center. In 2010, the three executions were in Ohio, Texas and Louisiana.

There are nine more executions scheduled this year, including one on Aug. 18 in Florida.

Alabama plans to put Jeremy Williams, 42, to death for the 2021 rape and murder of Kamarie Holland, 5, who was trafficked to him by her mother. Williams told his attorneys not to defend him in the case, and after he was sentenced he ordered them not to appeal.

Williams never expressed remorse for the murder, only saying that he was just “sick,” USA Today reported.

He will be the first person executed in Alabama after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the execution of Jeffrey Lee, 49, by nitrogen gas.

Kamarie’s mother is serving a 20-year-sentence.

Oklahoma is planning to execute Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez, 77, for the 2003 murder of his common-law wife Olimpia Fisher, 43, as she was trying to escape his abuse. He shot her twice in the face.

Last month, his attorneys argued to the Oklahoma Board of Parole and Pardon that his life should be spared, but Cuesta-Rodriguez said he doesn’t deserve to live.

“You must believe that I deserve to suffer. And you’re right,” he said to Fisher’s daughters. “It’s time for me to pay for what I did.”

Anthony Darrell Hines, 66, is scheduled to be executed in Tennessee for the 1985 muder of Catherine Jean Jenkins, 54, a mother of four who was working as a hotel maid when he attacked her. He stole $100 in cash from her, stabbed her to death and stole her car.

He has admitted to stealing the car, but still says he didn’t kill Jenkins.

This will be the first execution in Tennessee since the botched execution of Tony Carruthers in May. In that case, the doctor couldn’t find a vein for a backup intravenous line. Gov. Bill Lee gave Carruthers a one-year stay of execution.

The state won’t say whether the same doctor will perform the execution Thursday. The state protects the identity of medical staff in executions.