It is a strange time to look at the American justice system. Honestly, if you asked the average person on the street about the death penalty, they’d probably tell you it’s fading away. They’d point to the long list of states that have banned it recently—Virginia in 2021 was a huge one—and they’d talk about how public support is at a 50-year low. Gallup actually backed that up lately, showing only about 52% of folks still support it for murder.
But then you look at the actual numbers for 2025.
Last year was a total whirlwind. After years of the "machinery of death" slowing down to a crawl, things suddenly spiked. The US saw 47 executions in 2025. That is the highest number in sixteen years. It’s a massive jump from the 24 or 25 we were seeing just a year or two prior. Basically, we’re seeing a massive divide between what the public says they want and what’s actually happening in the execution chambers of places like Florida, Texas, and Alabama.
What is the death penalty in the US actually like right now?
Right now, the death penalty is a patchwork. It’s messy. As of January 2026, 27 states still have it on the books, but that number is deceiving. You’ve got states like California, Pennsylvania, and Oregon where the governor has basically said, "Not on my watch," and put a moratorium in place. Then you have the "active" states.
Florida went on an absolute tear last year. Governor Ron DeSantis signed death warrants at a pace we haven't seen in decades, resulting in 19 executions in Florida alone in 2025. That actually pushed them past Texas, which is usually the leader in this grim category.
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At the federal level, things are changing fast too. President Biden had previously commuted the sentences of almost everyone on federal death row. But then, entering 2025, the new administration flipped the script. The moratorium on federal executions was rescinded almost immediately. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memo in February 2025 that cleared the way for the Department of Justice to start seeking the death penalty again.
The states that are still executing
If you live in the South, capital punishment is a very real part of the legal landscape. If you're in the Northeast or the West Coast, it's largely a ghost.
- Texas: Still the old reliable for the death penalty. They have several executions scheduled for 2026, including Charles Victor Thompson on January 28.
- Florida: Currently the most active state in the union.
- Alabama: They’ve become the "testing ground" for new methods like nitrogen gas.
- South Carolina: They recently brought back the firing squad because they couldn't get the drugs for lethal injections.
Why the sudden surge in 2025 and 2026?
You've got to look at the politics. It’s not just about the crimes; it’s about the people in charge. A lot of the recent surge comes from "clearing the backlog." Many inmates had stayed their executions for years due to COVID-19 delays or legal battles over injection drugs.
Once those gates opened, they stayed open.
There's also the Supreme Court factor. The current court, with its 6-3 conservative majority, has been much less willing to step in at the last minute. In the past, a lawyer could file an emergency stay and potentially buy their client months or years. Now? SCOTUS is largely saying "no" to those 11th-hour pleas. In 2025, they didn't grant a single stay of execution for the first nine months of the year.
The methods are getting... different
For a long time, lethal injection was the only way people talked about. But pharmaceutical companies started hating the PR nightmare of their drugs being used to kill people, so they stopped selling them to prisons.
States had to get "creative."
Louisiana and Alabama have started using nitrogen hypoxia. It’s basically a mask that replaces oxygen with nitrogen. The state officials promised it would be quick and painless. But witnesses at the execution of Jessie Hoffman Jr. in March 2025 described him shaking and gasping for minutes. It wasn't the "peaceful" transition the brochures promised.
Then there's South Carolina. They actually used a firing squad three times last year. It sounds like something out of a Western, but for them, it was a practical fix to the drug shortage.
Current methods allowed in 2026:
- Lethal Injection: Still the default in most places, if they can get the drugs.
- Nitrogen Hypoxia: Now legal in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Oklahoma.
- Firing Squad: Utah, South Carolina, and Idaho are the big ones here. Idaho recently made it their primary method if drugs aren't available.
- Electrocution: Still an option in some Southern states, though rarely used unless the inmate chooses it.
The "Intellectual Disability" Loophole
A huge legal battle right now is Hamm v. Smith. This is a case that just landed in the Supreme Court’s lap. It’s all about whether someone with a low IQ can be executed. Back in 2002, the court ruled in Atkins v. Virginia that you can't execute people with intellectual disabilities.
But how do you define "disabled"?
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In the Smith case, the guy had IQ scores ranging from 72 to 78. Usually, 70 is the cutoff. The state of Alabama says "He's over 70, so he's fair game." The defense says "You have to look at how he actually functions in the world." This case is going to decide if states can use a hard number to decide who lives and who dies, or if they have to look at the whole person.
A system of extremes
The truth about the death penalty in the US is that it’s becoming more concentrated. We are moving toward a country where 45 states don't really use it, and 5 states use it constantly.
Even within states, it’s local. A few counties in Texas and Florida are responsible for the vast majority of death sentences. It often comes down to who the local District Attorney is. If you commit a murder in one county, you get life without parole. If you do it across the county line, you get the needle.
It's also worth noting the demographic reality. Every single person executed in 2025 was male. While women are on death row—like Christa Pike in Tennessee, who has a September 2026 date—they are rarely the ones who actually make it to the chamber.
What happens next?
If you are following this, keep your eyes on the 2026 execution calendar. Texas has James Broadnax scheduled for April and Edward Busby for May. These aren't just names on a list; they are the final stages of a legal process that has usually lasted 20 or 30 years.
The biggest thing to watch isn't the executions themselves, but the state legislatures. Indiana is currently debating adding nitrogen hypoxia and the firing squad to their books. If they do, expect the "surge" of 2025 to become the new normal for 2026 and beyond.
Actionable steps for staying informed:
- Check the DPIC: The Death Penalty Information Center is the gold standard for real-time tracking of execution dates and stays.
- Monitor SCOTUS Dockets: Look for "Applications for Stay of Execution." These usually pop up 24 to 48 hours before a scheduled death.
- State-Level Legislation: If you care about this issue, look at your own state’s "Capital Crimes" annual reports. Most Attorney Generals (like in Ohio) have to release these by law every January.
- Understand the "Death Qualification": If you are ever called for jury duty in a capital case, know that you will be asked if you can personally vote for death. If you say no, you are usually "struck for cause." This is why death penalty juries often trend more conservative than the general population.
The death penalty isn't going away, but it is changing shape. It's getting faster in some places and more experimental in others. Whether that's "justice" or "cruelty" depends entirely on which side of the witness glass you're standing on.