Death Row Inmate 'Sputtered and Twitched' After Receiving Lethal Injection — Decades After Killing Elderly Woman
64-year-old Jesse Guardado died by lethal injection.
Nov. 9 2026, Published 2:10 p.m. ET
A Florida man who was executed for the 2004 murder of an elderly woman reportedly "sputtered and twitched" after receiving a his lethal injection, RadarOnline.com has learned, in the latest controversy surrounding capital punishment.
Three men were executed in three separate states last week, just as California Governor Gavin Newsom announced he was commuting the sentences of every death row inmate in his state to life in prison.
Three Executions Carried Out in One Day
Michael Taylor, Jeffrey Weisheit, and Guardado were all executed on the same day.
Florida, Alabama and Indiana all carried out executions on Thursday, November 5, and each was met with controversy and opposition.
In Florida, witnesses said 64-year-old Jesse Guardado, who confessed to fatally stabbing a 75-year-old woman before stealing her jewelry box, $80, and other valuables to buy drugs, "sputtered and twitched" as his lethal injection was administered.
In Alabama, 54-year-old Michael Taylor was executed for his conviction in the killing of an elderly man and woman in a home robbery. Death penalty opponents had urged Republican Governor Kay Ivey to commute Taylor's sentence to life in prison, noting his age and immaturity when he committed his crimes in 1991, when he was 19.
Finally, Jeffrey Weisheit was executed in Indiana for the murder of his girlfriend's two children, 8-year-old Alyssa Lynch and her 5-year-old brother, Caleb, in a 2010 house fire near Evansville.
Drug Concerns for Jeffrey Weisheit's Lethal Injection
Weisheit's case became the focus of death penalty opponents.
Death penalty opponents focused on Weisheit's case, fearing a botched outcome similar to what happened to Christa Pike, who survived two attempts to administer her lethal injection in Nashville.
Indiana uses the same lethal injection drug as Tennessee, where two doses of pentobarbital given to Pike in September failed to end her life, and instead led to her emergency hospitalization.
Before Weisheit's execution, an organization opposed to the death penalty revealed to Radar that the pharmacy that sells the pricey injection drugs is under investigation by the State of Indiana for allegedly "failing basic safety inspections" due to "major safety issues in the storage and management of drugs."
Fears of Another Botched Execution
Critics were worried about another botched execution like Christa Pike's.
The pharmacy is currently under threat of losing its license, which opponents say was all the reason the state needed to postpone the execution – especially following the events in Tennessee.
"First we had the failure of the drugs to kill Christa Pike in Tennessee in September, and now Indiana is risking a failed execution by using a drug provider that the state itself is investigating and may actually shut down," said Abraham Bonowitz, executive Director of Death Penalty Action.
However, Weisheit was pronounced dead at 12:45 am local time.
California Clears Death Row
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Gavin Newsome commuted all death row inmates in California to sentences of life in prison.
The executions all came on the same day California Governor Newsom took the unprecedented step of commuting every California death sentence to a sentence of life in prison without parole.
The outgoing state leader's order affects all 548 prisoners on death row in the state in what will be one of his final acts in office.
Newsom, who many political pundits believe could be a frontrunner for president in 2028, explained in an open letter to his constituents, "I take this action because I firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California's values, undermines the foundations of our legal system, and diminishes each of us."
The politician has long been a vocal opponent of capital punishment, which he believes is "morally objectionable." The 59-year-old slammed the death penalty as "unfair, unjust (and) wasteful" in an executive order signed in 2019, which imposed a moratorium on all executions, withdrew the state’s lethal injection protocol, and closed San Quentin’s execution chamber.
If his shocking declaration survives the inevitable legal and political challenges, it would empty the nation's largest death row and eliminate about a quarter of all death sentences nationwide.
