Indiana executed Jeffrey Weisheit by lethal injection early Thursday at the Indiana State Prison for the 2010 house-fire deaths of two children, according to CBS News US. It was the first of three U.S. lethal injections scheduled for that day.
Weisheit, 50, was put to death at the prison in Michigan City, according to CBS News US. The injection began just after midnight, and death was pronounced at 12:45 a.m.
Weisheit admitted killing his girlfriend’s children, Alyssa Lynch, 8, and Caleb, 5, by setting fire to their house in the Evansville area in 2010, according to ABC News US.
The Indiana Supreme Court voted 3-2 late Wednesday to allow the execution to proceed, according to NBC News. The two dissenting justices would have paused it for 10 days over questions about the lethal drugs.
Weisheit’s attorneys alleged that the state obtained pentobarbital from Pharmaneek, a pharmacy that is on probation and faces possible license suspension, according to NBC News. An invoice showed the state paid $275,000 for six vials of pentobarbital added to the prison supply on Oct. 29, NBC News reported. That is far above the typical $15,120 to $16,250 price for commercial injectable pentobarbital.
Gov. Mike Braun declined to commute Weisheit’s sentence to life in prison or to allow brain scans, according to ABC News US. After the execution, he said the sentence "has been carried out as ordered by the court."
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita called the execution "long-awaited justice" for the children, according to CBS News US.
Weisheit’s lawyers had cited the failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee on Sept. 30, when she survived two lethal doses of pentobarbital, in their request for a reprieve.
Florida and Alabama also had executions scheduled for Thursday. If all three went ahead, it would be the second time this year that three people in the U.S. were put to death on the same day. The outcomes of the Florida and Alabama executions are not reported in these sources.
The key drug-sourcing claims rest mainly on NBC News reporting, and the account appears to be truncated. Weisheit’s legal team could not immediately be reached for comment. Pharmaneek did not respond to requests for comment, and the Indiana Department of Correction did not respond to requests for comment or an interview. The governor’s office declined to comment on the drug-sourcing allegations. The supplier named on the redacted invoice is not confirmed.
Pharmaneek is scheduled to appear before the Indiana Board of Pharmacy on Monday over alleged probation violations.
Sources
This article was written with AI assistance from the published reporting listed above. It is part of the World Brief daily news podcast.