Washington: Three death sentences carried out in one day in the United States for the first time since 2010

The states of Tennessee and Oklahoma carried out executions of two inmates with a 30-minute interval on Thursday, followed by Alabama a few hours later, as the United States executed three men by lethal injection in a single day for the first time since 2010.

The Tennessee inmate was executed for murdering a maid at a small hotel in 1985, and the Oklahoma inmate for killing his girlfriend in 2003. In Alabama, a man was executed Thursday evening for murdering a 5-year-old girl.

The execution of three individuals on the same day is a coincidence in the scheduling, but it also reflects a growing trend in the number of executions in the United States. Eleven states carried out a total of 47 executions in 2025, the highest number since 2009. With Thursday’s executions, 22 inmates have been put to death this year, with nearly 10 others having scheduled execution dates.

The last time three executions were carried out on the same day was on January 7, 2010, when Louisiana, Ohio, and Texas executed their inmates. Three executions were scheduled for the same day in 2018, but only one proceeded after a stay was granted to a Texas inmate and Alabama prison officials encountered problems with an inmate’s intravenous line.

Florida executed two men on the same day in July and has executed 31 inmates since the beginning of 2025.