Seven months into 2021, exe­cu­tions in the United States are near his­toric lows. As of the end of July, only the for­mer fed­er­al admin­is­tra­tion and the state of Texas had car­ried out any exe­cu­tions, and the five pris­on­ers put to death placed the coun­try on pace for the fewest exe­cu­tions since five states car­ried out a total of five exe­cu­tions in 1983.

The three fed­er­al exe­cu­tions car­ried out in the wan­ing days of the Trump admin­is­tra­tion end­ed an his­tor­i­cal­ly aber­rant six months and two days in which the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment con­duct­ed more civil­ian exe­cu­tions than any pri­or pres­i­den­tial admin­is­tra­tion in the 20th or 21st cen­turies. The last time any state oth­er than Texas car­ried out an exe­cu­tion was May 19, 2020, when Missouri exe­cut­ed Walter Barton.

As of August 1, 2021, sev­en exe­cu­tion dates were pend­ing across the United States. Six were in Texas and one was in Missouri. Twenty-sev­en exe­cu­tion dates for 2021 have been halt­ed by stays of exe­cu­tion, reprieves, resched­ul­ing, or the death of the pris­on­er on death row. If all sev­en cur­rent­ly sched­uled exe­cu­tions take place, the 12 exe­cu­tions would be the fewest since six states car­ried out 11 exe­cu­tions in 1988. Additional exe­cu­tion dates are expect­ed to be sched­uled for lat­er in the year.