Executions in the US rose sharply in 2025 to 47 — the most in one year since 2009 — driven by a federal push to "restore" capital punishment and a Supreme Court that denied all stays of execution. Florida carried out 19 executions after conducting only one the previous year, and four states (Florida, Alabama, South Carolina and Texas) accounted for nearly three-quarters of the total. Critics say the surge diverges from declining public support and reflects weakened judicial safeguards.
US Executions Spike to 47 in 2025 — Highest Annual Total Since 2009
The "death chamber" at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Huntsville Unit in Huntsville, Texas on 28 February 2000.Photograph: Paul Buck/AFP/Getty Images
Executions in the United States surged in 2025, reaching levels not seen in 16 years as a combination of federal policy shifts and a Supreme Court unwilling to stay procedures accelerated state-level killings.
Key Figures And Trends
A total of 47 men were executed by state authorities in 2025 — nearly double the number recorded in 2024 and the highest annual total since 2009. The spike comes amid a long-term national decline in the use of capital punishment and falling public support: Gallup found this year that just 52% of respondents back the death penalty for people convicted of murder, a 50-year low, and a majority of those under 55 now oppose it.
Federal And State Drivers
Political forces played a clear role. On 20 January, the president signed an executive order titled "Restoring the death penalty," and the Department of Justice authorized more than 20 new federal capital prosecutions this year. Advocates say this federal posture signaled to state officials that capital punishment was again a priority.
Florida embodied that shift: after carrying out just one execution in 2024, the state put 19 people to death in 2025, breaking its previous single-year record of eight. Together, Florida, Alabama, South Carolina and Texas accounted for nearly three-quarters of the year's executions. Nationwide, 12 states carried out executions in 2025, up from nine the year before; Louisiana ended a 15-year hiatus and resumed executions.
Methods And Controversies
Some states adopted controversial or experimental execution methods. Louisiana became the second state, after Alabama, to use nitrogen hypoxia; witnesses reported that Jessie Hoffman Jr. trembled for several minutes during the March procedure. South Carolina conducted the first firing-squad executions in the United States since 2010, using the method in three of its five executions. Reporting indicated a postmortem after the May firing-squad execution of Mikal Mahdi showed the shooters had missed the prisoner's heart, a failure likely to have caused prolonged suffering.
Judicial Role And Criticism
Legal analysts say the Supreme Court's behavior also contributed to the surge. The court's conservative majority denied every request to stay executions this year, markedly reducing last-minute judicial relief that had at times served as a safety net for death-row inmates challenging convictions or procedures.
"We're now operating a capital punishment system without a safety net," said Alexis Hoag-Fordjour, a law professor at Brooklyn Law School. "Federal courts are meant to act as a backstop, but that stop gap has been eviscerated."
Anti-death-penalty campaigners also point to national rhetoric. Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking, told a press event organized by the US Campaign to End the Death Penalty that the president's language has helped normalize harsher criminal-justice measures: "It's in the air, it's in the national rhetoric sent down from [the White House] — you use violence and cruelty to solve social problems."
What This Means
The spike in executions sharpens the divergence between government action and public opinion. Observers warn the trend risks further isolating the United States from other wealthy democracies, most of which have abandoned capital punishment, and raises urgent questions about due process, humane methods and the role of politics in life-and-death decisions.
