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

The number of executions in the United States has dramatically increased in 2025, hitting a rate not seen in since 2009. This sharp uptick is attributed to a focused campaign to reinvigorate the death penalty, coupled with a significant change in the approach of the US Supreme Court toward eleventh-hour pleas.

A Grim Tally: 47 Executions in a Single Year

A total of 47 men—all of whom were male—were executed by individual states maintaining the death penalty this year. This figure is nearly twice the count from the previous year, marking the highest annual total for executions in the country since 2009.

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

An International Exception

This sharp increase further separates the US from most other advanced economies, almost none of which continue the practice. In recent years, just a handful of Asian nations have conducted executions among peer countries.

Contradictory Trends

The resurgence of executions stands in stark contrast with broader patterns and current public sentiment. Over the past two decades, the use of the death penalty had been in gradual decline. Meanwhile, surveys indicate support for capital punishment for those convicted of murder has fallen to a 50-year low, with just over half of Americans in favor. A majority 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 "Reinstating Capital Punishment." This order aimed to ensure that statutes permitting capital punishment were "respected and faithfully implemented," marking a clear change 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," remarked a prominent anti-death penalty advocate.

A Surge in State Executions

The federal push was mirrored and intensified at the state level. The state of Florida emerged as a notable extreme case, conducting 19 executions in 2025—a staggering increase from just one the previous year. This shattered the state's prior annual record.

Together with Alabama, South Carolina, and Texas, these a quartet of jurisdictions were the source of almost three-quarters of all deaths this year. Overall, 12 states employed their death chambers, up from nine states in 2024.

Evolving Methods

As more executions occurred, some states adopted increasingly extreme methods. One state concluded a 15-year hiatus and became the second state to use nitrogen gas as an means of execution. Witnesses reported the prisoner convulsed for multiple minutes during the process.

Meanwhile, South Carolina performed the initial use by firing squad in the US since 2010, deploying this approach for three of its five executions this year. Accounts suggested that in one case, faulty targeting may have prolonged suffering for the condemned.

The Supreme Court's Role

The increase in executions is also linked to the posture 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 traditional function as a last resort for legal challenges based on claims of innocence, constitutional arguments, or allegations of cruel punishment. "We’re now operating lacking a crucial backup," noted a law professor. "Federal courts are supposed to serve as a backstop, but that stop gap has been eviscerated."