Florida executes man convicted of fatally stabbing elderly woman in 2004, tying the state's execution record
Florida carried out a record-tying 19th execution of the year in an unusual instance of three states administering the death penalty on the same day.
Jesse Guardado was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. following a three-drug injection at a state prison in Starke. Guardado had pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing a 75-year-old woman inside her Walton County home in 2004 before stealing her jewelry box, $80, and other valuables to buy drugs. The woman had helped him get a job and housing.
Hours earlier, Indiana executed a man for killing two children in a house fire in 2010, and in Alabama, a man was scheduled to die by injection later Thursday evening for his conviction in a fatal home robbery.
The executions were taking place the same day California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he will commute all 548 death sentences in his state, saying that he believes "state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California's values."
The announcement was a sharp contrast to Florida, where outgoing Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has made aggressive use of the death penalty like few other governors. His state has carried out more than half of the 34 executions so far this year in the U.S., where capital punishment has come under renewed scrutiny following Tennessee's failed execution of Christa Pike in September.
It is the second time since August that three states were set to carry out executions on a single day, although it remains unusual. Prior to this year, the last time it happened was 2010.
Guardado, 64, was already strapped to a gurney with an IV in his arm when the curtain to the Florida execution chamber went up promptly at 6:00 p.m. When the team warden asked Guardado if he had any last statement, he replied, "I would like to once again apologize for the pain and suffering I've caused to the victim's family and my own family, as well."
The deadly drugs began flowing immediately after that. About a minute into the injection, Guardado began breathing heavily, followed by some sputtering and twitching that lasted about another minute.
As the twitching subsided, the team warden shook Guardado and shouted his name, but there was no response. A medic was called in to check for a pulse at 6:12 p.m., and Guardado was pronounced dead a minute later.
A federal appeals court had said in 2024 that Guardado had received a "full and fair" hearing during the death penalty phase of his case. The U.S. Supreme Court denied his last appeal without comment Thursday afternoon.
DeSantis, who leaves office in January, has said he wants to bring justice to victims' families who have waited decades for death sentences to be carried out. He signed the death warrants that led to a state record of 19 executions in 2025. The state would surpass that total if two more executions are carried out as scheduled later this year.
Americans have long been divided over the death penalty, with nearly half of states banning capital punishment outright and just a handful of others carrying out most of the nation's executions each year.