MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. (WISH) — Indiana death row inmate Jeffrey Weisheit died by lethal injection inside the Indiana State Prison at 12:45 am CST, Thursday Nov. 5, more than 15 years after he murdered 8-year-old Alyssa Lynch and 5-year-old Caleb Lynch in a Vanderburgh County arson. 

Weisheit had no final words according to the Indiana Department of Correction (IDOC). 

It was the fourth execution in Indiana over the last two years but the first since the failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee. 

IDOC Communications Director Noelle Russell said the execution happened without incident. “I am told he did not move at all.”

Weisheit’s attorney Joe Perkovich, who witnessed the execution, said Weisheit was “unresponsive” but the procedure was largely obscured, no one declared a time of death, and there was no way to tell if there were complications. 

“I don’t know what I saw,” Perkovich said.

In 2010, investigators say Weisheit duct taped Caleb Lynch and stuffed a rag in the boy’s mouth before igniting road flares in the child’s clothes. The fire killed Caleb and his sister, Alyssa. Both were the children of Lisa Lynch, Weisheit’s girlfriend, who was at work at the time. 

“Those who commit the most heinous crimes against the most vulnerable will be held fully accountable under Indiana law,” Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita said in a statement. “My thoughts and prayers remain with the families of Alyssa and Caleb. Nothing can ever bring their children back, and the pain of this loss will never fully leave them. Yet, hopefully, with this justice being done, they may find some measure of peace.”

In Weisheit’s request for clemency, attorneys claimed severe mental illness and brain trauma contributed to his crimes. The Indiana Attorney General’s Office argued those explanations had already been litigated. 

Lisa Lynch tearfully asked the Indiana Parole Board to recommend Weisheit’s death sentence be carried out during an Oct. 19 clemency hearing. 

“Nothing about an abuser’s twisted narrative changes the horror of what was done,” Lynch said.

The children’s father signed an affidavit in support of clemency, writing “Jeffrey, I forgive you.” 

Ultimately, Republican Gov. Mike Braun followed the Parole Board recommendation to not grant clemency.

“Jeffrey Weisheit’s case has been heard and reviewed numerous times by both state and federal courts, including the Indiana Supreme Court, since his conviction in 2013,” Gov. Braun said in a statement. “These reviews have never resulted in an overturned sentence.  The State Parole Board issued a unanimous recommendation to deny Weisheit’s final appeal for clemency and that his execution proceed as scheduled. Today, Weisheit’s sentence has been carried out as ordered by the court.” 

Weisheit’s attorneys believe the state purchased the lethal injection drugs from a pharmacy currently under a state investigation. They filed an emergency motion to delay the death sentence, Wednesday, and had already submitted a reprieve application to Gov. Braun, asking him to pause the execution until the state could review its lethal injection procedures and sourcing of the execution drugs. 

The Indiana Supreme Court denied the motion in a 3-2 decision and Gov. Braun never gave a formal response to a reprieve application. 

Perkovich said his investigation into the procurement of the drugs will continue beyond Weisheit’s death. 

Prayer circles and vigils formed outside the prison in the final hours before Weisheit’s death, with members of the Catholic Diocese of Gary, Indiana Abolition Coalition, and the Notre Dame Exoneration Justice Clinic demonstrating against the death penalty. 

The IDOC said Weisheit’s last meal was barbecue ribs and Mountain Dew from Texas Corral. 

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