The number of executions in the US has dramatically increased in 2025, reaching a rate not seen in since 2009. This surge is linked to a focused campaign to reinvigorate the death penalty, combined with a significant change in the stance of the nation's highest court toward eleventh-hour pleas.
A Sobering Count: Nearly 50 Deaths in a Single Year
Exactly 47 individuals—all of whom were male—were executed by individual states maintaining the death penalty in 2025. This number represents nearly twice the count from the previous year, constituting the highest annual total for executions in the country since 2009.
"The evidence shows that the death penalty in 2025 is growing less popular with the public even as elected officials schedule executions in search of waning political benefits."
An International Exception
This pronounced rise further separates the US from most other developed nations, very few of which still carry out executions. In recent years, just Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan have carried out capital punishment among similarly developed states.
A Public Opinion Divide
The resurgence of executions stands in stark contrast with long-term trends and current public sentiment. Over the past two decades, the use of the death penalty had been in gradual decline. Meanwhile, surveys indicate approval of capital punishment for those convicted of murder has reached a half-century low, with 52% of respondents in favor. Most of adults under the age of 55 now are against it.
Presidential Influence
On his inauguration day back in office, the President issued an presidential directive titled "Restoring the Death Penalty." This order sought to ensure that statutes permitting capital punishment were "respected and faithfully implemented," marking a clear change from the previous presidency.
"It’s in the air, it’s in the national rhetoric sent down from the top—you use violence and cruelty to solve social problems," stated a well-known activist against executions.
State-Level Frenzy
The federal push was mirrored and intensified at the state level. Florida became a notable extreme case, carrying out 19 executions in 2025—a dramatic increase from just one the previous year. This broke the state's prior annual record.
Alongside several other southern states, these four states were responsible for almost three-quarters of all executions this year. Overall, 12 states actively used their death chambers, up from nine in 2024.
More Extreme Execution Protocols
As more executions occurred, some states turned to increasingly extreme methods. Louisiana ended a 15-year hiatus and followed another state's lead to employ nitrogen gas as an means of execution. Observers reported the prisoner convulsed for multiple minutes during the process.
In another development, South Carolina performed the initial use by a squad of shooters in the US since 2010, deploying this approach for three of its total executions this year. Accounts suggested that in an instance, faulty targeting may have prolonged suffering for the condemned.
A Changed Judicial Landscape
The surge in executions is also linked to the position of the nation's highest court. The majority-conservative bench rejected all applications to stay an execution in 2025, a notable demonstration of judicial disengagement.
This marks a change from the court's traditional function as a last resort for legal challenges based on innocence claims, rights-based arguments, or allegations of cruel punishment. "The system now functions lacking a crucial backup," commented a legal scholar. "Federal courts are meant to act as a backstop, but that safeguard has been eviscerated."
