Executions in the U.S. nearly doubled in 2025, rising to 46 so far from 25 in 2024, the Death Penalty Information Center (DPI) reported. Two executions scheduled in Georgia and Florida later this week would bring the total to 48, the highest in more than 15 years. Nineteen people — about 40% of the nation’s total — were or will be executed in Florida this year.
DPI Executive Director Robin Maher said the trends show “a real disconnect between what the American public wants and what elected officials are doing with the death penalty.” The increase coincides with President Trump’s second term and his support for resuming federal executions, which had been paused in 2021.
Florida set a record for executions in a single year, surpassing its prior high of eight in 2014. Gov. Ron DeSantis said COVID-19 had delayed some executions but those issues have been resolved; he told reporters he owed it to victims’ families to carry out the death penalty “smoothly and promptly,” adding that he believes it could be a “strong deterrent” and is “an appropriate punishment for the worst offenders.” Florida is scheduled to execute its 19th person this week: Frank Walls, 58, convicted for a 1987 home-invasion double murder and later confessing to three other killings. The next-highest state totals were five executions each in Alabama, South Carolina and Texas.
The DPI report noted that at least 40 executed or soon-to-be-executed death row prisoners this year had “vulnerabilities” such as brain damage, serious mental illness, severe childhood trauma or an IQ in the intellectually disabled range. Maher said many of those people “would not or could not be sentenced to death today” given changes in law and understanding of mental illness and trauma. The Supreme Court in 2002 ruled that executing individuals with intellectual disabilities is unconstitutional, but states set their own assessment procedures; the high court is now considering how IQ test results should be used, and disability advocates warn a narrow focus on IQ could increase the risk of executing people with intellectual disabilities.
Ten veterans will have been executed in 2025, the highest number in nearly two decades. Among them was Jeffrey Hutchinson, put to death in May for 1998 murders; his lawyers argued he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain injury from Gulf War service. Maher said juries often sentenced veterans without adequate information about service-related physical and psychological wounds.
While executions rose, new death sentences continued a long-term decline: 22 people received new death sentences in 2025, down from 139 in 2005. Those new sentences occurred in eight states: Florida, California, Alabama, Texas, North Carolina, Arizona, Missouri and Pennsylvania. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty less often because such cases are costly and lengthy, and jurors are increasingly reluctant to impose it. A Gallup poll in October found 52% of Americans favored the death penalty for convicted murderers, the lowest level since 1972.