American Executions Surged in the Past Year to Peak in Over a Decade and a Half.

The count of state-sanctioned killings in the US has sharply risen in 2025, reaching a rate not seen in 16 years. This sharp uptick is attributed to a focused campaign to revive the death penalty, combined with a significant change in the stance of the nation's highest court toward last-minute appeals.

A Sobering Count: Nearly 50 Deaths in a Single Year

A total of 47 individuals—each one were male—were executed by individual states that utilize the death penalty in 2025. This number represents nearly twice the count from 2024, marking the highest annual total for capital punishment in the United States since 2009.

"The evidence shows that the death penalty in 2025 is growing less popular with the American people even as elected officials schedule executions in search of waning political benefits."

A Global Outlier

This sharp increase further separates the United States from most other developed nations, very few of which still carry out executions. Currently, only a handful of Asian nations have carried out capital punishment among peer countries.

A Public Opinion Divide

The resurgence of executions stands in stark contrast with long-term trends and modern public opinion. Over the past two decades, the use of the death penalty had been in gradual decline. At the same time, surveys indicate approval of capital punishment for murder convictions has fallen to a 50-year low, with 52% of respondents in favor. A majority of citizens under the age of 55 now are against it.

Presidential Influence

On his inauguration day back in office, the President issued an executive order titled "Reinstating Capital Punishment." This order aimed to ensure that statutes permitting capital punishment were "upheld and properly enforced," signaling a major shift from the prior administration.

"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.

A Surge in State Executions

The national initiative was mirrored and intensified at the level of individual states. The state of Florida emerged as a particular outlier, carrying out 19 executions in 2025—a dramatic increase from just one the year before. This shattered the state's previous record.

Together with several other southern states, these a quartet of jurisdictions were the source of almost 75% of all executions this year. In total, a dozen states employed their death chambers, up from nine states in 2024.

Evolving Methods

As activity increased, some states turned to increasingly extreme methods. Louisiana ended a long period without executions and became the second state to use nitrogen gas as an execution method. Observers reported the prisoner convulsed for several minutes during the procedure.

Meanwhile, South Carolina performed the first execution 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 caused extended agony for the condemned.

The Supreme Court's Role

The surge in executions is also connected to the posture of the nation's highest court. The majority-conservative bench rejected all applications to halt an execution in 2025, a rare display of judicial disengagement.

This represents a shift from the court's traditional function as a last resort for appeals based on claims of innocence, rights-based arguments, or allegations of cruel punishment. "We’re now operating lacking a crucial backup," commented a legal scholar. "Federal courts are supposed to serve as a final check, but that stop gap has been removed."