The count of state-sanctioned killings in the US has sharply risen in 2025, hitting a level not seen in since 2009. This surge is linked to a focused campaign to revive the death penalty, combined with a significant change in the approach of the nation's highest court toward eleventh-hour pleas.
A total of 47 men—all of whom were male—were executed by individual states maintaining the death penalty in 2025. This figure is nearly twice the count from the previous year, 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 public even as elected officials schedule executions in search of diminishing political benefits."
This pronounced rise further separates the US from most other developed nations, almost none of which continue the practice. In recent years, just a handful of Asian nations have conducted capital punishment among peer countries.
The comeback of executions stands in stark contrast with broader patterns and current public sentiment. For years, the use of the death penalty had been in a steady decrease. At the same time, polling indicate approval of capital punishment for murder convictions has fallen to a 50-year low, with 52% of Americans in favor. Most of citizens under the age of 55 now oppose it.
On his first day back in office, the sitting President issued an presidential directive titled "Reinstating Capital Punishment." This order sought to ensure that laws authorizing capital punishment were "respected and faithfully implemented," signaling a major shift from the previous presidency.
"The tone is set, the national dialogue sent down from the top—the idea is to use harsh measures to solve social problems," stated a prominent anti-death penalty advocate.
The federal push was mirrored and amplified at the level of individual states. Florida became a particular outlier, conducting 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 actively used their death chambers, up from nine in 2024.
As activity increased, some states adopted increasingly extreme methods. One state concluded a long period without executions and became the second state to employ nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method. Witnesses reported the condemned individual convulsed for several minutes during the procedure.
In another development, a different state performed the first execution by firing squad in the US since 2010, using this method for three of its total executions this year. Accounts suggested that in an instance, faulty targeting may have caused extended agony for the individual.
The surge in death sentences carried out is also linked to the posture of the nation's highest court. The court's conservative majority rejected all applications to stay an execution in 2025, a rare display of judicial disengagement.
This represents a shift from the court's traditional function as a final avenue for appeals based on innocence claims, constitutional arguments, or allegations of cruel punishment. "The system now functions lacking a crucial backup," noted a legal scholar. "The judiciary are meant to act as a backstop, but that stop gap has been eviscerated."
