2025 Roundup of Death Penalty Related Legislation

More than one hun­dred bills have been intro­duced this year in 34 states and in Congress to expand and lim­it use of the death penal­ty, abol­ish and rein­state the death penal­ty, mod­i­fy exe­cu­tion pro­to­cols and secret the infor­ma­tion about them, and alter aspects of cap­i­tal tri­als. Thus far, ten bills in five states have been enact­ed, with Florida enact­ing the most leg­is­la­tion. Of the bills that have been signed into law, three mod­i­fy exe­cu­tion pro­to­cols; three expand the cir­cum­stances for death eli­gi­bil­i­ty; one expands aggra­vat­ing cir­cum­stances; one law makes a death sen­tence manda­to­ry; one mod­i­fies the process and low­ers the legal stan­dard for intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty claims; and one mod­i­fies the process to deter­mine men­tal com­pe­ten­cy for exe­cu­tion. The major­i­ty of enact­ed bills have been spon­sored by Republican legislators. 

Legislation to Modify Execution Protocols 

States are increas­ing­ly propos­ing changes to exe­cu­tion pro­to­cols. Of the ten bills enact­ed so far this year, three mod­i­fy exe­cu­tion pro­to­cols, includ­ing bills to add new, large­ly untest­ed exe­cu­tion meth­ods and rein­tro­duce pre­vi­ous­ly abandoned ones. 

Introduced by Representatives Jeff Wardlaw (R) and Blake Johnson (R), Arkansas enact­ed HB 1489, which adds suf­fo­ca­tion by nitro­gen gas as an exe­cu­tion method, on March 18, 2025. The bill passed both cham­bers of the state leg­is­la­ture by wide mar­gins, with a vote of 67 to 23 in the House and 26 to 9 in the Senate. Joining Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi as the fourth state to adopt this exe­cu­tion method, Arkansas will be able to start using nitro­gen gas in mid-July, or 90 days after the session’s end. Both Alabama and Louisiana have used nitro­gen gas in exe­cu­tions over the past year, with wit­ness­es report­ing anom­alies dur­ing the exe­cu­tions, includ­ing signs of dis­tress from the prisoners. 

Introduced by Representative Bruce Skaug (R), Idaho enact­ed HB 37 on March 12, 2025, mak­ing fir­ing squad the state’s pri­ma­ry exe­cu­tion method, replac­ing lethal injec­tion. The bill, which doesn’t take effect until July 1, 2026, passed by wide mar­gins in both cham­bers: 58 to 11 in the House and 28 to 7 in the Senate. Although five oth­er states allow exe­cu­tions by fir­ing squad (Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah), this bill makes Idaho the only state to autho­rize it as its pri­ma­ry exe­cu­tion method. On March 7, 2025, the U.S. had its first fir­ing squad exe­cu­tion in fif­teen years with South Carolina’s exe­cu­tion of Brad Sigmon. His lawyer report­ed con­cerns about use of the new pro­ce­dure. South Carolina sub­se­quent­ly used a fir­ing squad on April 11 to exe­cute Mikal Mahdi. Mr. Mahdi’s lawyers have also recent­ly expressed con­cerns that his exe­cu­tion was botched. 

Florida’s HB 903 is the lat­est leg­is­la­tion expand­ing the meth­ods of exe­cu­tion avail­able to a state. It was signed by Governor Ron DeSantis on May 22, 2025, and is effec­tive July 1, 2025. Unlike the bills passed in Arkansas and Idaho, HB 903 autho­rizes the state to use any exe­cu­tion method ​“not deemed uncon­sti­tu­tion­al.” In explain­ing his rea­son­ing for spon­sor­ing the bill, Representative Berny Jacques (R) com­plained that ​“weak sen­tenc­ing guide­lines and bureau­crat­ic inef­fi­cien­cies have allowed vio­lent offend­ers to escape real consequences.” 

Sixteen more bills to mod­i­fy or aug­ment exe­cu­tion meth­ods are still pend­ing in 11 states. Both Nebraska (LB 432) and Ohio (HB 36) have pend­ing bills to autho­rize nitro­gen gas as an exe­cu­tion method; North Carolina’s bill (HB 270) seeks to intro­duce both elec­tro­cu­tion and the fir­ing squad; Tennessee unique­ly (SB 0491 /​HB 1022) has bills seek­ing to add phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal fen­tanyl as an exe­cu­tion method. Additional efforts to mod­i­fy exe­cu­tion pro­to­cols include autho­riz­ing wit­ness­es who may be present at exe­cu­tions, for exam­ple mem­bers of the leg­is­la­ture (HB 198 /​SB 1214 in Tennessee) or the state attor­ney gen­er­al (S 0267, S 0308, H 3852 in South Carolina), as well as requir­ing states to main­tain records and report annu­al­ly on the drugs stocked by the state to use in exe­cu­tions, includ­ing expi­ra­tion dates (SB 1690 in Texas).

Unique bills in both Connecticut and Delaware — both states with­out the death penal­ty — have sought to set restric­tions on phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies incor­po­rat­ed in their respec­tive states from sup­ply­ing drugs used in exe­cu­tions. First intro­duced as SB 430, and now rolled into SB 1355, the Connecticut bill pro­hibts per­sons who are licensed, reg­is­tered or doing busi­ness in this state from man­u­fac­tur­ing, com­pound­ing, sell­ing, test­ing, dis­trib­ut­ing, dis­pens­ing, or sup­ply­ing any drug or med­ical device for the pur­pose of exe­cut­ing the death penal­ty. The pro­posed penal­ty is revo­ca­tion of license. HB 61 in Delaware has sim­i­lar pro­hi­bi­tions but goes far­ther to cre­ate crim­i­nal, in addi­tion to civ­il, lia­bil­i­ties for cor­po­ra­tions or oth­er busi­ness­es in the state that vio­late the pro­vi­sions. For exam­ple, HB 61 pro­pos­es that the high­est-rank­ing offi­cer of an enti­ty that ​”knew or should have known” that the firm’s prod­ucts would be used ​“in any capac­i­ty” to an exe­cu­tion, the firm’s char­ter will be revoked, and that offi­cer will be guilty of a class A felony and sub­ject to a civ­il penal­ty of up to $50,000. 

Legislation to Expand Secrecy Provisions Concerning Executions 

In addi­tion to adding exe­cu­tion by nitro­gen gas as an exe­cu­tion method, Arkansas’s HB 1489 pro­tects from dis­clo­sure infor­ma­tion about the indi­vid­u­als involved in nitro­gen gas exe­cu­tions or the sup­pli­ers of the gas, chem­i­cals and equip­ment used in the exe­cu­tion. Likewise, pend­ing Ohio bill HB 36, in addi­tion to intro­duc­ing exe­cu­tion by nitro­gen hypox­ia, would also pro­hib­it dis­clo­sure of ​“exe­cu­tion identifying information.” 

Legislation to Abolish or Limit the Death Penalty 

Bills seek­ing to abol­ish the death penal­ty have been intro­duced in at least 12 states (Arizona, Delaware, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Texas). Efforts to lim­it use of the death penal­ty include Georgia’s HB 682, which sought to pro­hib­it the death penal­ty in cas­es where the only evi­dence of guilt was the tes­ti­mo­ny of a sin­gle eye­wit­ness. In Texas, the leg­is­la­ture is tak­ing steps to cod­i­fy the Supreme Court’s 2002 deci­sion in Atkins v. Virginia, where the Court found that exe­cut­ing indi­vid­u­als with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ties vio­lat­ed the 8^th Amendment’s pro­hi­bi­tion on cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ments (HB 688 /​SB 432). A bill was also intro­duced in Texas that would exempt a defen­dant with severe men­tal ill­ness at the time of the cap­i­tal crime from death penal­ty eli­gi­bil­i­ty (HB 2777). A sep­a­rate Texas bill (HB 2055) would extend the Supreme Court’s 2005 deci­sion in Roper v. Simmons, which held the impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty on juve­niles uncon­sti­tu­tion­al, to those under age 21 at the time the crime occurred.

Georgia Legislation Related to Defendants with Intellectual Disability  

Sponsored by five Republicans and one Democrat, HB 123 in Georgia pro­vides pre­tri­al hear­ings for cap­i­tal defen­dants to raise intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty claims and low­ers the stan­dard of proof for those claims from ​“beyond a rea­son­able doubt” to a ​“pre­pon­der­ance of evi­dence,” bring­ing the state stan­dard in line with the oth­er 26 states that retain the death penal­ty. Although sim­i­lar bills have been intro­duced in the past¹, none had ever received a com­mit­tee vote before the leg­isla­tive ses­sion end­ed. This time, HB 123 unan­i­mous­ly passed the House (172 in favor and 3 non-vot­ing) and near­ly unan­i­mous­ly passed in the Senate (53 to 1) with amend­ments, which the House then agreed to (150 in favor, 3 against, and 13 non-vot­ing) on March 31, 2024. Republican Governor Brian Kemp signed the bill on May 13, 2025, effective immediately. 

Legislation to Reinstate or Expand Use of the Death Penalty, Including to Non-Homicide Crimes 

Bills to rein­state the death penal­ty have been intro­duced in at least nine states and bills seek­ing to expand use of the death penal­ty have been intro­duced in at least 11 states and the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment. Three bills, one in Arkansas (SB 375), one in Idaho (HB 380) and one in Oklahoma (SB 599), have been enact­ed, expand­ing the death penal­ty to per­sons con­vict­ed of non-lethal sex-relat­ed crimes with minors. These three states join Florida, which was the first to enact such leg­is­la­tion in 2023, and Tennessee, which enact­ed sim­i­lar leg­is­la­tion in 2024. 

In Arkansas, Senator Jeremiah Moore (R) intro­duced SB 375, which cre­ates the offense of cap­i­tal rape. Capital rape would include ​“sex­u­al inter­course or devi­ate sex­u­al activ­i­ty” with a child age 13 or younger. The bill passed with wide mar­gins in both cham­bers, with a vote of 26 to 6 in the Senate and 74 to 13 in the House. Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed the bill on April 16, 2025, and it goes into effect on August 5, 2025. 

In Idaho, Representative Bruce Skaug (R) intro­duced HB 380, which specif­i­cal­ly makes aggra­vat­ed lewd con­duct with a minor child age 12 or under a death eli­gi­ble offense. The bill passed unan­i­mous­ly in the House (63 in favor, 7 absten­tions) and near­ly unan­i­mous­ly in the Senate (35 votes in favor, 5 against). Governor Brad Little signed the bill on March 27, 2025, and it goes into effect July 1, 2025.

In Oklahoma, Representative Warren Hamilton (R) intro­duce SB 599, which specif­i­cal­ly makes ​“any per­son con­vict­ed of forcible anal or oral sodomy, rape, rape by instru­men­ta­tion, or lewd molesta­tion of a child under four­teen (14) years of age” eli­gi­ble for a death sen­tence. The bill passed by wide mar­gins in both cham­bers, with a vote of 39 to 5 in the Senate and 80 to 8 in the House, then a final vote in the Senate of 36 to 6. Governor Kevin Stitt signed the bill on June 2, 2025, and it goes into effect November 1, 2025. 

Bills to make non-lethal sex crimes or human traf­fick­ing death-eli­gi­ble offens­es, in vio­la­tion of the Supreme Court deci­sion in Kennedy v. Louisiana (2008), have been intro­duced in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment. In Florida, SB 1804 has passed both cham­bers. Bills in sev­er­al states have also intro­duced leg­is­la­tion to crim­i­nal­ize abor­tion in cer­tain cir­cum­stances as homi­cide, thus mak­ing abor­tions death-penal­ty eli­gi­ble offens­es in states which retain the death penalty. 

Legislation Mandating Death Sentences for Undocumented Persons Convicted of Capital Felonies 

Passed in Florida’s spe­cial ses­sion, SB 4C pro­vides that the court must sen­tence to death a defen­dant who is an ​“unau­tho­rized alien” and who is con­vict­ed of a cap­i­tal felony. Although Supreme Court prece­dent estab­lished in Woodson v. North Carolina (1976) pro­hibits manda­to­ry death sen­tence, SB 4C passed in the Senate 25 to 11 and in the House 85 to 29. Governor Ron DeSantis signed the bill on February 13, 2025, and it became effec­tive imme­di­ate­ly. Similar bills have been intro­duced in both Pennsylvania and Oklahoma. At the fed­er­al lev­el, on May 8, 2025, Senator John Cornyn (TX) intro­duced S 1675, which would add to the list of death-eli­gi­bil­i­ty aggra­vat­ing fac­to­ra per­son who is an ​“ille­gal alien” and who ​“has been con­vict­ed of killing, attempt­ing to kill, or con­spir­ing to kill a United States citizen.”