CityNewsOKC. Aug. 13, 2026
OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLA. – On Thursday, August 13, Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez was executed by lethal injection by the state of Oklahoma.
Mr. Rodriguez, 70 years old, was convicted of first-degree murder in the killing of his girlfriend, Olimpia Cardina Fisher.
His time of death — induced vial lethal injection — was 10:13 a.m.
The execution took place at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
Executions Thursday were also set in Tennessee and Alabama. If those deaths also occur, it will be the first time in more than 15 years that many executions took place in a single day.
(https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/13/executions-oklahoma-alabama-tennessee )
In response to the death row prisoner’s execution here in Oklahoma, Dr. Elizabeth Overman, who leads the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (OK-CADP) said, in a statement provided to CapitolBeatOK.com:
“The OK-CADP extends deepest sympathies to the families of Olimpia Cardina Fisher and Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez. Nobody benefited from today’s execution and the costs to the people of Oklahoma are steep. Every state homicide is a violation of the 8th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Each execution directly harms the people who carry it out in the name of the state and those who are adjacent to the people executed.
“The people in the state are not any safer because Mr. Cuesta-Rodriguez is dead and they are poorer because, counterintuitively, studies show that implementing the death penalty is significantly more expensive than life in prison.* Money that could go into education is used instead to carry out a killing that does not make society any safer and does not guarantee that violence and chaos won’t occur in the future. Studies do show that educating people does lessen societal harms greatly reducing violence and chaos.”
On Tuesday, July 14, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board had voted to deny recommending clemency for Mr. Rodriguez by a vote of 3-1.
Cuesta-Rodriguez said his main priority during his video statement to the Board was to apologized to the victim’s daughters. He also told the Board he did not want or deserve mercy and that it was time to pay for his crimes.
* NOTE: According to a summary from OK-CADP, Death penalty cases are significantly more expensive than comparable non-capital cases, with estimates showing they can cost 2.5 to 5 times more for the same outcome of life imprisonment Death Penalty Information Center. Some studies go further, finding capital cases can be up to 10 times more costly Equal Justice USA.
Members of OK-CADP gathered in Oklahoma City outside the Governor’s mansion near the state capitol building in a vigil, praying for mercy and protesting the execution. As the time of execution neared, members of the group stood in silence until work was received that Cuesta-Rodriguez was dead.
NOTES and DISCLOSURE: Patrick B. McGuigan, editor emeritus for CityNewsOKC, contributed to this report. Pat is also founder & publisher at CapitolBeatOK (CBOK), where many of his stories and commentaries on executions and on criminal justice reform have appeared. Search both websites for Pat articles and those of CBOK’s senior reporter, Darla Shelden. Pat and Darla are dues-paying members of OK-CADP. Pat adapted and expanded this report from a press release transmitted by OK-CADP.
To read the original article, visit City News OKC.
Tags: Carlos Cuesta=Rodriguez, CityNewsOKC, death penalty, Eliabeth Overman, execution
