Indiana AG seeks execution date for death row inmate convicted in 2010 killings of two children

The request comes days after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review Jeffrey Weisheit’s case, ending years of state and federal appeals.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita on Wednesday asked the Indiana Supreme Court to schedule the execution of death row inmate Jeffrey Weisheit.

The filing came just eight days after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene in Weisheit’s case.

He was sentenced to death in 2012 for the murders of 5-year-old Caleb Lynch and his 8-year-old sister, Alyssa Lynch, who were killed in a Vanderburgh County house fire in 2010.

In a verified motion filed with the state’s high court, attorneys for the state argued that Weisheit has exhausted all available avenues of review and that no active stay remains in place to prevent his execution.

The state requested that the court set an execution date 30 to 45 days after granting the motion.

“For more than 15 years, the family of these two innocent children has waited for justice,” Rokita said in a Wednesday statement. “A jury lawfully convicted Weisheit and sentenced him to death. That sentence has been upheld through every level of the judicial system. It is long past time to carry out the sentence.”

Weisheit killed the children during the early morning hours of April 10, 2010, according to court records. Prosecutors said he “hog-tied” Caleb and placed railroad flares in the boy’s underwear before igniting them and fleeing the home. Alyssa was also inside the residence when the fire spread through the house, killing both children.

Authorities later apprehended Weisheit in Kentucky after a high-speed chase. Court records indicate he threw a knife at pursuing officers before being taken into custody.

A Vanderburgh County jury convicted Weisheit in 2012 of two counts of murder and recommended a death sentence after finding multiple aggravating circumstances, including that both victims were younger than 12 years old. The trial court subsequently imposed the death penalty.

The case has spent more than a decade moving through state and federal courts.

The Indiana Supreme Court upheld Weisheit’s convictions and death sentence in 2015. His request for post-conviction relief was later denied, and the state’s high court affirmed that decision in 2018.

Weisheit then turned to federal court, filing a habeas corpus petition in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana in 2020. The petition was denied in 2022, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the decision last August before rejecting a rehearing request the following month.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case on June 8.

If the Indiana Supreme Court grants the state’s request, Weisheit’s execution would take place at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, said Indiana Department of Correction spokesperson Noelle Russell.

Russell declined to say Wednesday whether the state currently possesses pentobarbital — the drug used in Indiana’s most recent lethal injection executions — or how much remains in DOC custody.

The Capital Chronicle previously obtained DOC drug logs showing the state’s supply steadily diminished after Indiana resumed executions in late 2024. Records released in February showed no execution drugs remaining in state custody as of the most recent log entry, recorded in October 2025 shortly after the execution of Roy Lee Ward.

A new request by Capital Chronicle for drug log records is still pending.

Indiana ended a yearslong pause on executions in December 2024 after state officials acquired pentobarbital and carried out the execution of Joseph Corcoran.

The state later executed Benjamin Ritchie in May 2025 and Ward in October 2025. Records obtained by the Capital Chronicle showed each execution reduced the state’s available drug supply, prompting additional purchases by the DOC in the weeks leading up to each execution.

Indiana has spent at least $1.275 million between 2024 and 2025 to maintain its execution-drug inventory, according to records previously obtained by the Capital Chronicle.

Defense attorney Joe Perkovich said Wednesday that Weisheit’s legal team intends to continue challenging his death sentence.

It’s not yet clear whether Weisheit will seek clemency from Gov. Mike Braun. Such petitions are often among the final avenues available to death row inmates after court appeals have been exhausted.

Braun denied clemency requests from Ritchie and Ward before the state carried out their executions.

“We are exploring all avenues to fight the State’s pursuit of Mr. Weisheit’s execution,” Perkovich said in a statement to the Capital Chronicle. “Since before his trial, Mr. Weisheit’s legal proceedings have been riddled with gross deprivations of his right to counsel and fundamental fairness guaranteed under the Constitution. This death sentence is constitutionally infirm and we intend to vindicate his rights before the State extinguishes them.”

Source: indianacapitalchronicle.com, Casey Smith, June 17, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde

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