Jeffrey Weisheit Executed in Michigan City for 2010 Child Murders

Jeffrey Weisheit was executed in Michigan City early Thursday morning for the 2010 murders of two children in a house fire near Evansville. The Indiana Department of Correction reported his time of death as 12:45 a.m., eight minutes after the blinds covering the witness window were closed.

The execution followed Governor Mike Braun’s denial of clemency on Monday and a divided Indiana Supreme Court decision on Wednesday. The high court voted 3-2 to reject a final request for a stay, allowing the state to proceed while Weisheit’s attorneys challenged the drugs and procedures planned for the lethal injection.

Witnesses were permitted a brief view of the chamber, but visibility was restricted. The blinds did not open until 12:34 a.m., and they closed again at 12:37 a.m. During those three minutes, Weisheit lay on a gurney while his spiritual adviser, Deacon Brian Nosbusch, spoke over him. Witnesses did not see Weisheit move or open his eyes.

Bert Weisheit, Jeffrey’s father, waited in the witness room with his daughter and other family members. He described the viewing period as insufficient. "They sure did not allow us to see very much," Bert Weisheit said. A Department of Correction employee accompanying the group replied that the process was simple and fast.

Defense attorney Joe Perkovich stood in the witness room because the available chair did not offer a clear view. He said the limited perspective left him unable to explain exactly what he had witnessed. "I don't know what I saw," Perkovich said in the prison parking lot afterward. He noted that there was no visible pronouncement of death during the time the blinds were open.

Weisheit was sentenced for killing 8-year-old Alyssa Lynch and 5-year-old Caleb Lynch. Their mother, Lisa Lynch, had urged officials to uphold the death sentence during clemency proceedings. Their father, Steven Lynch, had asked the governor to spare Weisheit, arguing that another death would not restore his children.

The Department of Correction confirmed it paid $275,000 for the execution drugs and received six 50-milliliter vials of pentobarbital on October 29. The supplier, Pharmaneek Inc., is an Indianapolis pharmacy currently on probation. The Indiana Board of Pharmacy has a hearing scheduled for December 14 to address alleged violations in the pharmacy’s compounding practices.

After the execution, Governor Braun stated that the case had been reviewed by state and federal courts since the 2013 conviction without the sentence being overturned. Attorney General Todd Rokita expressed sympathy for the Lynch family, saying that justice being done might help them find some measure of peace.