Tennessee death row inmate’s last words to son who witnessed execution

United States states carried out three executions by lethal injection on a single day, a scheduling coincidence that reflects a broader upward trend in capital punishment across the country. Inmates were put to death in Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Alabama, matching a scale of executions not seen since January 7, 2010, when Louisiana, Ohio, and Texas executed three men on the same day.

While double executions occasionally happen, three in a single day is very unusual, Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Robin Maher told USA Today. Data shows that 11 states executed 47 people in 2025, marking the highest annual total since 2009. Thursday’s lethal injections brought the total number of executions carried out in the U.S. to 22 for the year, with nearly a dozen more scheduled.

Anthony Hines Executed at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution

In Tennessee, 66-year-old Anthony Darrell Hines was put to death by lethal injection for the 1985 stabbing death of 54-year-old motel maid Catherine Jean Jenkins in Kingston Springs. Hines declined a conventional final statement before his execution, telling staff not right now, thank you before adding Tell my son hello,.

Hines’ son, Dennis Jenkins, attended the execution. The two men had reconnected just four days prior, having last seen each other when Dennis was three years old. Minutes after the execution chamber curtain opened, Hines asked his spiritual adviser, How long do I have? Witnesses inside the chamber heard groans and heavy breathing while the adviser placed her hands on his shoulders and prayed. Hines was pronounced dead at 10:43 a.m.

Dennis Jenkins pointed out that his mother had only a plastic spray bottle to defend herself against Hines’ knife during the attack. Prior to the execution, Hines had unsuccessfully appealed his sentence, arguing that the medical doctor overseeing the procedure was unqualified and likely to botch it, following a May execution attempt in the state that was halted after medical staff struggled for over an hour to establish a backup IV line.

Simultaneous Executions in Oklahoma and Alabama

Roughly 30 minutes after the Tennessee execution, Oklahoma put 70-year-old Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez to death at the state penitentiary in McAlester. Cuesta-Rodriguez was convicted of the 2003 fatal shooting of his 43-year-old girlfriend, Olimpia Fisher, at their Oklahoma City home after she planned to leave him. He turned his head toward two watching relatives, mouthed I love you, and offered no final statement before being declared dead at 10:13 a.m. following several minutes of labored breathing.

Hours later, Alabama executed 42-year-old Jeremy Williams for the 2021 rape and murder of five-year-old Kamarie Holland in Georgia. Prosecutors stated Williams paid the child’s mother $2,500 before sexually assaulting and strangling the victim. Williams had written to the Alabama attorney general’s office asking for an immediate execution date so the victim’s family could find closure, choosing to waive appeals.

Williams rocked his head back and forth, smiled, and appeared to sing before becoming still, and was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m. The victim’s mother is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to sex trafficking in connection with the case.