Three executions in one day: protest in Indiana, court rejection in Florida
Three US states plan to carry out executions on 5 November. In Indiana opponents handed the governor a petition; in Florida the Supreme Court rejected a final appeal.
Symbolic image · Photo: Diego Delso / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped and resized)
Indiana, Florida and Alabama plan to carry out executions on 5 November, according to the overview of the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). In Indiana, opponents of the death penalty on Friday delivered a petition with more than 1,000 signatures and copies of 546 letters to Governor Mike Braun's office. According to broadcaster WISH-TV, Braun will not delay the execution of Jeffrey Weisheit, who killed two children in a 2010 fire, to allow brain scans. No clemency decision has been made yet; attorney Joseph Perkovich expects it on Wednesday.
"I don't think the proper response to someone taking someone's life is taking another life," said protest organiser Joel Reichenbach. The state says it is ready and has spent $275,000 on the drug. It would be Indiana's first lethal injection since the failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee.
In Florida, the state Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the appeal and stay request of Jesse Guardado, who killed a 75-year-old woman in 2004. Justice A. S. Tanenbaum wrote that the expedited procedure is not an invitation to file "just one more" motion for the mere sake of filing one. In Alabama, the execution of Michael Taylor is set for 5 November. According to DPIC, 32 people had been executed in the US this year as of 21 October.