---
title: 'Federal Death Penalty'
subtitle: 'The federal government can seek death sentences for a limited set of crimes, but federal executions are much more rare than state executions.'
canonical: 'https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/state-and-federal-info/federal-death-penalty'
section: topics
date: '2017-10-12T13:50:07-04:00'
updated: '2026-06-03T14:53:35-04:00'
source: 'Death Penalty Information Center'
---

Overview
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The federal death penalty applies in all 50 states and U.S. territories but is used relatively rarely. President Biden commuted the federal death sentences of 37 men on December 23, 2024, leaving just 3 prisoners on the federal death row. Sixteen federal executions have been carried out in the modern era, all by lethal injection, with 13 occurring in a six-month period between July 2020 and January 2021.

The federal death penalty was held unconstitutional following the Supreme Court’s opinion of *Furman v. Georgia* in 1972. Unlike the quick restoration of the death penalty in most states, the federal death penalty was not reinstated until 1988, and then only for a very narrow class of offenses. The Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994 greatly expanded the number of eligible offenses to about 60.

The use of the federal death penalty in jurisdictions that have themselves opted not to have capital punishment—such as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and many states—has raised particular concerns about federal overreach into state matters.

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