The Death Penalty Information Center released its Year End Report today, detail­ing the death penal­ty prac­tices of 2025. The Report notes diver­gent and con­tra­dic­to­ry trends. On one hand, pub­lic opin­ion polls record­ed his­tor­i­cal­ly low sup­port for the death penal­ty, and the high­est oppo­si­tion in 50 years. New research about death sen­tenc­ing is con­sis­tent with these find­ings. DPI found that when cap­i­tal juries were asked to choose between life and death, the major­i­ty, 56%*, reject­ed the death penal­ty. Stunningly, only 14* juries nation­wide were able to unan­i­mous­ly agree to impose death sen­tences out of more than 50 cap­i­tal tri­als. On the oth­er hand, a small num­ber of elect­ed offi­cials pushed exe­cu­tions to their high­est lev­el in 15 years, with 48* exe­cu­tions. Florida, which exe­cut­ed only one per­son in 2024, car­ried out 19* exe­cu­tions this year – 40% of the national total.

“The increase in this year’s exe­cu­tion num­bers was caused by the out­lier state of Florida, where the gov­er­nor set a record num­ber of exe­cu­tions,” said Robin Maher, Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center. ​“The data show that the deci­sions of Gov. DeSantis and oth­er elect­ed offi­cials are increas­ing­ly at odds with the deci­sions of American juries and the opin­ions of the American public.”

Use of the death penal­ty remains extreme­ly iso­lat­ed and con­cen­trat­ed. Only four states — Florida, Alabama, South Carolina, and Texas — were respon­si­ble for near­ly three-quar­ters (72%*) of exe­cu­tions. Just three states — Alabama, California, and Florida — imposed 14* new death sen­tences, or 64%* of 22* new death sen­tences this year.

Longstanding con­cerns about unfair­ness in the appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty con­tin­ued this year. The vast major­i­ty (83%) of peo­ple exe­cut­ed in 2025 had evi­dence of seri­ous men­tal ill­ness, intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty, and/​or severe child­hood trau­ma or abuse. Eight were under 21 at the time of their crime. Thirteen peo­ple who were exe­cut­ed had been sen­tenced to death by non-unan­i­mous juries. Ten peo­ple exe­cut­ed, includ­ing sev­en in Florida, were mil­i­tary vet­er­ans. As stan­dards for rep­re­sen­ta­tion have improved, defen­dants with these types of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties have become less like­ly to be sen­tenced to death.

Methods of exe­cu­tion were the sub­ject of leg­is­la­tion, lit­i­ga­tion, and con­tro­ver­sy in a dozen states. Louisiana adopt­ed nitro­gen gas as a method of exe­cu­tion and end­ed a 15 year pause with the exe­cu­tion of Jessie Hoffman in March. Witnesses report­ed that Mr. Hoffman ​“shook” and ​“jerked” dur­ing his exe­cu­tion. South Carolina con­tin­ued to use the fir­ing squad despite an autop­sy report show­ing that shoot­ers missed the heart of pris­on­er Mikal Mahdi in April. In Alabama, Anthony Boyd’s trou­bling nitro­gen gas exe­cu­tion last­ed near­ly 40 min­utes and prompt­ed a pas­sion­ate dis­sent from three of the Supreme Court’s justices.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied every request to stay an exe­cu­tion in 2025, a con­tin­ued retreat from the crit­i­cal role it has his­tor­i­cal­ly played in reg­u­lat­ing and lim­it­ing the use of the death penalty. 

*New death sen­tence num­bers are accu­rate of December 15, 2025, at 9am ET. These num­bers are sub­ject to change if addi­tion­al death sen­tences are hand­ed down before the end of 2025. Asterisks indi­cate num­bers that are sub­ject to change. Execution totals include exe­cu­tions sched­uled for December 17 and 18.

Citation Guide
Sources

The Death Penalty in 2025: Year End Report, DPI, December 15, 2025.