INDIANAPOLIS (WRTV) — Indiana’s attorney general on Tuesday asked the state’s Supreme Court to set an execution date for a death row inmate convicted of murdering two young children in a fire in 2010.
The attorney general’s court filing argued that Jeffrey Weisheit, of Evansville, has exhausted the available avenues of legal review and that no active stay of execution is in place, leaving the court with a duty to schedule the date.
The Indiana Supreme Court’s decision is pending.
The 50-year-old Weisheit is housed at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, online records of the state Department of Correction show. Four other men are on death row in Indiana, online records show.
In the early morning hours of April 10, 2010, Weisheit hog-tied 5-year-old Caleb Lynch, placed railroad flares in the child’s underwear, and ignited them before fleeing the Lynches’ home in Evansville. Caleb’s 8-year-old sister, Alyssa Lynch, was also inside the house at the time. The flames killed both children.
Weisheit fled Indiana and was later captured in Kentucky following a high-speed chase, during which he threw a knife at the officers who apprehended him.
Weisheit was convicted in Clark Circuit Court in Jeffersonville of two counts of murder and one count of arson resulting in serious bodily injury. Prosecutors sought the death penalty on the grounds that he committed multiple murders and that both children killed were younger than 12 years old.
A jury found him guilty and recommended the death sentence. The trial court imposed it. The Indiana Supreme Court affirmed his convictions and sentence.
Weisheit sought post-conviction relief, which was denied by the post-conviction court. The Indiana Supreme Court affirmed that denial on Nov. 7, 2018.
He then filed a federal petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana on Jan. 17, 2020. That petition was denied on Nov. 2, 2022. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the denial on Aug. 13, 2025, and denied a petition for rehearing on Sept. 29, 2025.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari on June 8, 2026, closing the final door on his federal appeals.
Tyler Banks, on behalf of Attorney General Todd Rokita, filed the request to execute Weisheit.
In this case, the Indiana Supreme Court holds the jurisdiction to order a new execution date when no stay is in effect. Banks requested that the Indiana Supreme Court set Weisheit’s execution date between 30 and 45 days after issuing its order granting the motion.
Indiana has had 16 executions since 2000, with three of those since 2024. No executions happened from 2010 to 2023 because Indiana, like many states, struggled to obtain lethal injection drugs as manufacturers restricted their use.
Records that Indiana Capital Chronicle obtained in February from the governor’s office showed Indiana paid $100,000 for drugs used in October’s execution of Roy Lee Ward — bringing the total amount the state has spent on pentobarbital to at least $1.275 million — and reveal how long lethal injection drugs remained in state custody before being used or destroyed. Pentobarbital has been used in all three of Indiana’s most recent executions.
