Executions in the United States nearly doubled in 2025 compared to the previous year, with Florida conducting a record number of executions for a single year. According to a year-end report released by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPI) on Monday, states conducted 46 executions, with two additional executions scheduled, bringing the projected total to 48. This increase occurs as public support for the death penalty remains at its lowest point since 1972, and new death sentences continue a multi-decade decline.
National Execution Trends
As of the DPI report's release, 46 executions had been carried out by states, a significant increase from 25 executions in 2024. With two more executions scheduled later in the week in Georgia and Florida, the total for 2025 is projected to reach 48, which would mark the highest number of executions in over 15 years. The increase in executions coincides with the second term of President Donald Trump, during which federal executions, paused in 2021 by former President Joe Biden, have resumed.
Florida's Role and State Data
Florida accounted for 19 of the 46 national executions completed or scheduled for 2025, representing approximately 40% of the nationwide total. This figure established a new record for Florida's most executions in a single year, surpassing its previous record of eight in 2014. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis stated in November that execution delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic had been resolved. He commented on the importance of ensuring the death penalty is carried out "smoothly and promptly" for victims' families, referencing cases dating back to the 1980s, and expressed the view that it serves as a "strong deterrent" to crime and is an "appropriate punishment for the worst offenders."
One individual scheduled for execution in Florida on Thursday was Frank Walls, 58, sentenced to death for the 1987 murders of Edward Alger and Ann Peterson during a home invasion robbery. Walls had also confessed to three other killings. Following Florida, Alabama, South Carolina, and Texas each conducted five executions, tying for the second-highest state totals.
Concerns Regarding Executed Individuals
The DPI report indicated that at least 40 death row prisoners executed or scheduled for execution in 2025 presented what the DPI described as "vulnerabilities." These included conditions such as brain damage, serious mental illness, severe childhood trauma, or IQ scores within the intellectually disabled range. The DPI noted that many of these individuals might not be sentenced to death under current legal and societal understandings.
In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled that executing individuals with intellectual disabilities violated the Eighth Amendment as cruel and unusual punishment, while allowing states to define their own assessment procedures. The Supreme Court is currently reviewing how states should utilize IQ test results in evaluating mental capacity for capital cases. Advocacy groups for individuals with disabilities have voiced concerns that a narrow interpretation of IQ scores could lead to more executions of individuals with intellectual disabilities.
Veterans on Death Row
The report also highlighted that 10 veterans were executed in 2025, marking the highest number in nearly two decades, compared to three in the previous year. Attorneys for some veterans, such as Jeffrey Hutchinson, who was executed in May for murders committed in 1998, argued that their clients suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury sustained during military service. The DPI suggested that juries might not have received adequate information regarding the impact of military service on some veterans' physical or psychological conditions.
Decline in New Death Sentences and Public Opinion
The number of new death sentences continued a downward trend, with 22 individuals receiving new death sentences in 2025, a decrease from 139 in 2005. New death sentences were imposed in eight states: Florida, California, Alabama, Texas, North Carolina, Arizona, Missouri, and Pennsylvania. The report attributed the decline in new death sentences to factors including prosecutors pursuing capital punishment less frequently due to high costs and lengthy legal processes, and a stated reluctance among jurors to impose death sentences. Public support for the death penalty, as measured by a Gallup poll in October, registered at 52% in favor for persons convicted of murder, which is the lowest recorded since 1972.