Executions in the United States nearly doubled in 2025, rising to 46 so far from 25 in 2024, the Death Penalty Information Center reported. Two additional executions scheduled in Georgia and Florida later this week would raise the total to 48, the highest annual number in more than 15 years. Florida alone accounts for 19 executions — roughly 40% of the national total for the year.
DPI Executive Director Robin Maher said the trend highlights a disconnect between public opinion and the actions of elected officials on capital punishment. The rise in executions coincides with the start of President Trump’s second term and his support for resuming federal executions, which had been paused in 2021.
Florida set a state record for executions in a single year, surpassing its prior high of eight in 2014. Gov. Ron DeSantis has said COVID-19 delayed some executions but that those issues have been resolved; he told reporters he believes carrying out sentences promptly honors victims’ families, serves as a deterrent and is an appropriate punishment for the most serious crimes. Florida is scheduled to execute its 19th person this week, Frank Walls, 58, who was convicted in a 1987 home-invasion double murder and later confessed to three other killings. The next-highest state totals are five executions each in Alabama, South Carolina and Texas.
The DPI report also found that at least 40 people executed or soon to be executed this year had significant vulnerabilities, including brain damage, serious mental illness, severe childhood trauma or IQ scores in the range associated with intellectual disability. Maher said many of those individuals likely would not or could not receive death sentences under current legal standards and growing understanding of mental illness and trauma.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that executing people with intellectual disabilities is unconstitutional, but states use different procedures to assess disability. The high court is currently considering how IQ test results should factor into those determinations, and disability advocates warn that an overly narrow focus on IQ could increase the risk of executing people with intellectual disabilities.
Ten veterans were executed in 2025, the highest number in nearly two decades. Among them was Jeffrey Hutchinson, executed in May for 1998 murders; his legal team argued he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain injury sustained during Gulf War service. Maher noted that juries often imposed death sentences on veterans without full information about service-related physical and psychological injuries.
Despite the rise in executions, new death sentences continued a long-term decline: 22 people received new death sentences in 2025, compared with 139 in 2005. Those new sentences were handed down in eight states — Florida, California, Alabama, Texas, North Carolina, Arizona, Missouri and Pennsylvania. Prosecutors have sought the death penalty less frequently in recent years because capital cases are costly and protracted, and juries have grown more reluctant to impose it. A Gallup poll in October found 52% of Americans favored the death penalty for convicted murderers, the lowest level of support since 1972.