Three US States Carry Out Executions in Rare Triple Procedure

Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez was put to death by the state of Oklahoma on Thursday, the first of three executions scheduled that day in a rare triple procedure that underscores a renewed appetite for capital punishment in the United States. Just one hour later, Darrell Hines was put to death by the state of Tennessee, and at 6pm local time in Alabama, that state executed Jeremy Williams. Cuesta-Rodriguez, 70, was pronounced dead at 10.13am at the Oklahoma state penitentiary in McAlester.

He was sentenced to death for murdering his common-law wife, Olimpia Fisher, in 2003. He had unsuccessfully appealed for mercy, saying he was remorseful and had struggled all his life from mental illness. Cuesta-Rodriguez’s family and friends issued a statement in the wake of his execution, calling his life one of “extraordinary beauty and tenderness within the darkest of conditions”. Through small, unglamorous, consistent acts of kindness, he expressed his humanity year after year, the statement read.