Introduction

This year’s report details the diver­gent and con­tra­dic­to­ry trends that char­ac­ter­ized the death penal­ty in 2025. 

Public opin­ion polls record­ed his­tor­i­cal­ly low sup­port for the death penal­ty, and the high­est oppo­si­tion in 50 years.¹New 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 15 juries nation­wide were able to unan­i­mous­ly agree to impose death sen­tences out of more than 50 cap­i­tal tri­als.²These sen­tenc­ing data are the most mean­ing­ful, con­tem­po­ra­ne­ous mea­sure of how Americans cur­rent­ly feel about the death penal­ty. They are espe­cial­ly strik­ing because cap­i­tal juries are com­posed only of peo­ple will­ing to impose cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, exclud­ing any­one cat­e­gor­i­cal­ly opposed to its use. 

But the num­ber of exe­cu­tions nation­wide this year num­bered 47, the high­est total in more than 15 years. More states exe­cut­ed peo­ple than last year, though 72% of exe­cu­tions were con­cen­trat­ed in just 4 states. The 47 men who were exe­cut­ed this year were sen­tenced a gen­er­a­tion or more ago, at a time when dif­fer­ent laws, poli­cies, and atti­tudes result­ed in many more peo­ple being sen­tenced to death and exe­cut­ed each year. Among the peo­ple exe­cut­ed this year were some who would not — indeed, could not — have been sen­tenced to death today because of changes in the law. 

Together, these con­tra­dic­to­ry trends indi­cate the grow­ing dis­con­nect between what elect­ed offi­cials do and what the pub­lic wants. The evi­dence shows that the death penal­ty in 2025 is increas­ing­ly unpop­u­lar with the American peo­ple even as elect­ed offi­cials sched­ule exe­cu­tions in search of dimin­ish­ing political benefits. 

Other data tracked by DPI show a con­tin­u­a­tion of decades-long declines. This year, there were few­er new death sen­tences, few­er peo­ple on death row, and few­er states impos­ing new death sen­tences. Violent crime has been decreas­ing for sev­er­al years and has con­tin­ued to drop in 2025. Nearly half (44%) of all death penal­ty states record­ed no cap­i­tal tri­als this year, and many elect­ed pros­e­cu­tors in death penal­ty states pub­licly announced they would nev­er seek a death sen­tence. 

And yet law­mak­ers pro­posed a tidal wave of bills this year, triple last year’s num­ber, large­ly aimed at adopt­ing new meth­ods of exe­cu­tion, expand­ing death penal­ty eli­gi­bil­i­ty, and cur­tail­ing post-con­vic­­tion appeals. President Trump’s sup­port for the death penal­ty was on dis­play from the first day of his admin­is­tra­tion, the sub­ject of Presidential Executive Orders and the deci­sions of his Attorney General, who has autho­rized two dozen new fed­er­al death penal­ty pros­e­cu­tions this year. Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis sched­uled a record num­ber of exe­cu­tions for that state — 40% of the nation­wide total this year — in secre­cy and without explanation. 

These deci­sions con­trast­ed with evi­dence show­ing more Americans than ever doubt the effec­tive­ness and fair­ness of the death penal­ty. These two trends appear to be on a col­li­sion course; as sup­port for the death penal­ty con­tin­ues to fall, its con­tin­ued use may become polit­i­cal­ly unsus­tain­able.