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

The number of state-sanctioned killings in the United States has sharply risen in 2025, reaching a rate not seen in since 2009. This sharp uptick is attributed to a focused campaign to revive the death penalty, combined with a notable shift in the approach of the US Supreme Court toward eleventh-hour pleas.

A Sobering Count: 47 Executions in a Single Year

A total of 47 men—each one were male—were put to death by individual states maintaining the death penalty this year. This number represents nearly double the count from 2024, constituting the most active period for capital punishment in the country since 2009.

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

An International Exception

This sharp increase further isolates the US from most other developed nations, almost none of which still carry out executions. In recent years, only a handful of Asian nations have conducted capital punishment among peer countries.

Contradictory Trends

The comeback of state killings 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 a steady decrease. At the same time, surveys indicate support for capital punishment for murder convictions has reached a half-century low, with just over half of respondents in favor. A majority of adults under the age of 55 now are against it.

Presidential Influence

On his first day back in office, the President issued an executive order titled "Reinstating Capital Punishment." This order sought to guarantee that statutes permitting capital punishment were "upheld and properly enforced," marking a clear change from the prior administration.

"The tone is set, the national dialogue sent down from the top—you use violence and cruelty to solve social problems," remarked a well-known anti-death penalty advocate.

State-Level Frenzy

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

Alongside several other southern states, these four states were responsible for almost 75% of all deaths this year. Overall, a dozen states actively used their execution facilities, up from nine in 2024.

More Extreme Execution Protocols

As activity increased, some states turned to more controversial methods. One state ended a long period without executions and followed another state's lead to use nitrogen gas as an execution method. Observers reported the condemned individual visibly shook for several minutes during the procedure.

Meanwhile, South Carolina carried out the first execution by a squad of shooters in the US since 2010, deploying this approach for three of its five executions this year. Reports suggested that in an instance, faulty targeting may have caused extended agony for the individual.

The Supreme Court's Role

The increase in executions is also linked to the position of the US Supreme Court. The court's conservative majority denied every request to halt an execution in 2025, a rare display of judicial disengagement.

This represents a shift from the court's historical role as a last resort for appeals based on claims of innocence, rights-based arguments, or charges of excessive cruelty. "We’re now operating lacking a crucial backup," noted a law professor. "The judiciary are meant to act as a final check, but that safeguard has been removed."