Three men convicted of murder in separate U.S. states are scheduled to be executed on the same day, marking the first time in 16 years that three executions have been planned for one day in the country. Anthony Darrell Hines, 66, is due to be executed in Tennessee, Jeremy Williams, 41, in Alabama, and Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez, 71, in Oklahoma. The executions come amid a sharp increase in capital punishment, with 47 people executed across 11 states in 2025, compared with 25 in 2024.

Experts point to political leadership in several states and renewed federal support under President Donald Trump as major factors behind the increase. Trump has consistently backed capital punishment, calling it “an essential tool for deterring and punishing” people responsible for the most serious crimes. His administration reinstated the federal death penalty in 2025 and expanded execution protocols, while Florida has emerged as the biggest contributor to the national increase. Twelve of the 19 executions carried out so far in 2026 have taken place in Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has supported changes making death sentences easier to pursue.

The rise has occurred despite growing concerns about execution methods, costs and wrongful convictions. Pharmaceutical companies have resisted supplying drugs for lethal injections, while some states have turned to firing squads. In May, Tennessee officials failed for more than an hour to administer a lethal injection to death-row inmate Tony Von Carruthers, who was later granted a one-year reprieve by Gov. Bill Lee. Hines, who has maintained his innocence for four years and is bedridden, is scheduled to face the same execution protocol. Williams, convicted of raping and killing a 5-year-old girl in 2021, has declined further legal representation and clemency, while Cuesta-Rodriguez, convicted of killing a woman in 2003, has also requested no mercy.

The executions are taking place as support for capital punishment continues to weaken among Americans. A Gallup poll found that 52% of Americans consider the death penalty morally acceptable, the lowest level 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. Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said the decline showed that jurors were increasingly concluding that death was not the appropriate punishment, even for the most serious crimes.