INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — An Indiana father whose two children were murdered in a 2010 house fire has asked Gov. Mike Braun to spare the life of the man convicted of killing them, saying he has forgiven him and does not believe an execution would honor his children’s memory.
Steven Lynch submitted an affidavit Oct. 7 requesting that Jeffrey Weisheit’s death sentence be commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Weisheit is scheduled to be executed Nov. 5.
Weisheit was convicted in 2013 of two counts of murder and one count of arson for killing 8-year-old Alyssa Lynch and her 5-year-old brother, Caleb, in a fire at his home near Evansville while their mother was working.
The Indiana Supreme Court upheld his convictions and death sentence in 2015.
In his affidavit, Lynch questioned what purpose Weisheit’s execution would serve.
“What good does it do the memory of my children to put this man to death?” Lynch wrote.
Lynch said Weisheit “knows in his heart what he did” and expressed concern that executing him would inflict additional suffering on another family.
“Hurting Mr. Weisheit’s family by executing him is not the outcome my children would want,” Lynch wrote. “I seek to save his family the great pain and loss from the taking of his life. I want to prevent another parent from experiencing the loss I have experienced.”
He concluded his affidavit with a direct statement to Weisheit: “Jeffrey, I forgive you.”
The Indiana Parole Board held clemency hearings Oct. 16 and Oct. 19, including an interview with Weisheit at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City and public testimony supporting and opposing clemency.
During the Oct. 16 hearing, Weisheit apologized for killing the children and acknowledged that he could not justify his actions.
“There is no excuse or explanation for what I did,” Weisheit told the board, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle.
Weisheit, 50, discussed his religious conversion and said he wanted to continue helping others while incarcerated.
“I want to live now,” he said. “I want to try to make things better as much as I can, especially in prisons, because I see how bad, like this prison, it’s managed.”
Board members questioned Weisheit about the killings, his disciplinary history and his ability to manage conflict if his sentence were commuted to life imprisonment without parole.
Before the hearings, Weisheit’s attorneys filed an emergency motion seeking to postpone his execution and clemency proceedings for two weeks to allow additional medical testing.
His attorneys sought MRI and PET brain scans to investigate possible neurological injuries and psychiatric conditions that they argued had not been adequately examined during his original trial and subsequent appeals.
The defense cited Weisheit’s history of mental illness, developmental difficulties, childhood trauma and possible brain injuries as potentially significant mitigating evidence.
The motion described childhood diagnoses that included attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and bipolar disorder, along with developmental problems involving speech and motor functioning.
His attorneys also cited psychiatric hospitalizations, suicide attempts and other experiences they argued were relevant to understanding his mental health history.
Questions about the adequacy of Weisheit’s legal representation and the presentation of mitigating evidence had previously been considered by state and federal courts.
In a 2018 decision, the Indiana Supreme Court rejected Weisheit’s claims of ineffective assistance of counsel, although Chief Justice Loretta Rush partially dissented.
The majority found that Weisheit’s trial attorneys had presented substantial mental health evidence, including expert testimony, but had not obtained certain records from the Indiana Boys School.
Rush disagreed with the majority’s assessment of the defense attorneys’ performance and the potential significance of evidence that had not been presented during sentencing.
Weisheit subsequently sought federal habeas relief, challenging aspects of his conviction, sentencing and legal representation.
On Aug. 13, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld the denial of his habeas petition, finding that most of his claims were procedurally defaulted and rejecting his remaining grounds for relief.
His attorneys renewed their efforts in October 2026, arguing that additional neurological testing could provide evidence relevant to the governor’s clemency decision.
On Oct. 22, the Indiana Supreme Court unanimously denied Weisheit’s emergency requests, declining to postpone his execution or order prison officials to transport him for brain scans.
The court found that Weisheit had not established a legal basis for judicial intervention in the executive clemency process.
However, the justices said the executive branch could authorize the requested testing independently.
“If the board or the governor finds the medical evidence relevant, the executive branch maintains its own authority to transport him without a court order,” the court wrote.
The decision left Weisheit’s Nov. 5 execution date unchanged.
While Steven Lynch has asked that Weisheit be spared, the children’s mother, Lisa Lynch, has urged the state to carry out the death sentence.
According to an Oct. 19 Indiana Capital Chronicle report, Lisa Lynch testified against clemency, describing the continuing grief caused by the deaths of her children.
“Every single day without them is a struggle,” she said. “Every birthday, every holiday, every landmark moment is marked by their agonizing absence. Time passes, but the weight of losing them never fades.”
Her testimony came during the board’s public hearing Oct. 19, which included statements from supporters and opponents of clemency.
The parents’ opposing positions have placed competing requests before the state officials responsible for determining whether Weisheit should be executed or spend the remainder of his life in prison.
The Indiana Parole Board is responsible for issuing a nonbinding recommendation to Braun, who has final authority to grant or deny clemency.
As of Oct. 25, the Indiana Department of Correction’s clemency hearing website continued to direct visitors to check back after Oct. 23 for the board’s recommendation. No recommendation or gubernatorial decision was publicly confirmed in the available reports.
Unless Braun grants clemency or a court intervenes, Weisheit is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection before sunrise Nov. 5 at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City.
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