The Cuban Carlos Cuesta-Rodríguez, 70 years old, was executed by lethal injection this Thursday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, more than two decades after being sentenced to death for the murder of Olimpia Fisher, his partner and the mother of two daughters.
The Oklahoma Corrections Department confirmed that Cuesta-Rodríguez was pronounced dead at 10:13 a.m. local time, after attempts by his attorneys and anti-death penalty organizations to prevent the execution were unsuccessful, as reported by Oklahoma Voice.
The Cuban had been convicted of the murder of Fisher, 43, which occurred in 2003 at the home they shared in Oklahoma City.
According to the prosecutor's office, the crime was the culmination of months of harassment and abuse against the woman. Cuesta-Rodríguez shot her twice in the eyes during a violent episode that was partially witnessed by the victim's daughters.
One of them, who was pregnant, witnessed the first shot. The other heard the gunfire, found her mother injured, and tried to confront the assailant with a baseball bat before escaping and calling 911 from a neighbor's house.
Authorities stated that Fisher initially survived the first shot, but Cuesta-Rodriguez shot him again while the agents remained outside the house.
The confrontation with the police lasted for about three hours. When the officers finally entered the residence, they found Fisher's body.
"It's time for me to pay for what I did."
In July, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-1 against recommending clemency to Governor Kevin Stitt.
During that hearing, Cuesta-Rodríguez himself adopted an unusual stance for a convict who was just weeks away from execution: he stated that he neither wanted nor believed he deserved clemency.
"It’s time for me to pay for what I did," she stated.
Her lawyers, however, had requested that a personal and clinical history be taken into account, which they argued was not properly presented during the trial.
Cuesta-Rodríguez arrived in the United States from Cuba during the Mariel Boatlift of 1980, which brought around 125,000 Cubans to U.S. soil.
The defense argued that he had a childhood marked by physical abuse and later suffered a serious brain injury as a result of a bus accident.
His lawyers also stated that he suffered from depression, paranoia, psychosis, and post-traumatic stress disorder, and noted that he was consuming alcohol and steroids at the time he killed Fisher.
Those arguments did not succeed in halting the execution.
He regained his Catholic faith on death row
Organizations opposed to the death penalty, including Catholic Mobilizing Network, also petitioned Governor Stitt for clemency.
The group highlighted that the Cuban had renewed his Catholic faith during his years of incarceration and stated that his behavior in prison allowed him to become one of only four death row inmates chosen to access a common yard within a less restrictive unit.
After his execution, family and friends released a statement in which they highlighted the transformation that, according to them, he experienced during his years in prison.
They described her life as one of "extraordinary beauty and tenderness within the darkest conditions" and asserted that "her legacy will not be measured by her worst moment, but by the countless moments that followed."
Olimpia Fisher's family responded from a different perspective, but they also turned to faith to reflect on the more than 20 years that have passed since the crime.
Her daughters, Cinthya Allen and Catya Wallis, claimed to have forgiven the man who killed their mother.
"Our faith in Jesus has allowed us to forgive. We hope that this tragedy and this loss remind everyone of the importance of awareness about domestic violence," they expressed.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond stated after the execution that the sentence had finally been carried out.
"Justice has been served for Olimpia Fisher, whose life was tragically cut short," she stated.
"I pray that her family finds some peace after enduring 23 years of unimaginable pain," she added.
For his part, the Archbishop of Oklahoma City, Paul S. Coakley, questioned the increasing application of the death penalty in the state.
"Today, I feel sadness as the loss of life continued with the execution of Carlos Cuesta-Rodríguez by lethal injection," the religious leader stated in a message shared on his social media.
Coakley called for moving towards "a more humane form of justice" that keeps open the possibility of redemption and respects the dignity of all lives, including those who have committed serious crimes.
Three executions scheduled on the same day in the United States
The death of Cuesta-Rodríguez marked an unusual day for the application of the death penalty in the United States.
Its execution was the first of three scheduled for this Thursday in Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Alabama, a coincidence that had not occurred since January 2010, revealed The Guardian.
The case occurs amid a rise in executions in the country. In 2025, 47 people were executed, nearly double the number from the previous year, in a context of increased activity by states that maintain the death penalty.
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