(Washington) The number of executions in the United States has practically doubled in 2025 compared to previous years, but American support for capital punishment continues to slowly erode, said the specialized observatory Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) on Monday.
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In total, 46 executions have already been carried out in the United States this year, compared to around twenty per year for the past decade. This is the highest level since the 46 recorded in 2010, and two more are still scheduled for 2025.
On the other hand, the number of death sentences handed down by juries in the United States remains close to its historic low, with 22 this year, underlines the DPIC in its annual report published Monday.
“The state of Florida is the real reason for the increase in the number of executions that we are witnessing,” explains DPIC director Robin Maher to AFP, noting that this state alone accounts for nearly 40% of the total.
If we took (Florida) out of the equation, this year wouldn’t seem that different from the others.
Robin Maher, director of the Death Penalty Information Center
Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who has ultimate responsibility for signing the execution order, provided no other justification for this sudden increase than the need to “provide justice for the families”.
But political commentators credit Mr. DeSantis, who unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination in 2024 against Donald Trump, with the intention of trying his luck again for the 2028 presidential election.
” Gap ”
Although all executions since 2021 have fallen under state jurisdiction, “everyone agrees that President Trump’s enthusiasm for the use of the death penalty has probably had an influence on certain actors in the states in terms of scheduling executions or even legislation on the subject,” indicates Robin Maher.
She nevertheless points to a “discrepancy between the actions of elected officials in several states and what the population wants”.
The drop in the number of death sentences handed down, as well as “the difficulties encountered by many juries in reaching a unanimous verdict” reflect the disaffection of Americans for capital punishment, “at 52%, the lowest level in five decades”, she estimates.
“The discrepancy comes from the fact that elected officials in certain states schedule the execution of people sentenced to death, sometimes decades ago, at a time when support for capital punishment was very different,” insists the director of DPIC.
As for years, capital punishment remains geographically very concentrated: only 12 states, mainly in the South, will have executed convicts in 2025, and death sentences have only been handed down in 8 of them.
The vast majority of executions in the United States are carried out by lethal injection, 38 so far in 2025.
Three were done by nitrogen inhalation, a method used for the first time in the world by Alabama in 2024 and compared by UN experts to a form of “torture” and two by firing squad in South Carolina, for the first time in the United States since 2010.
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 American states. Three others, California, Oregon and Pennsylvania, observe a moratorium on executions by decision of the governor.
Two court decisions also marked the year.
In October, Texas justice suspended the execution planned a week later of Robert Roberson, suffering from autism and convicted of the death of his daughter attributed to “shaken baby” syndrome, despite serious doubts that have since emerged about this diagnosis, and sent the case back to court.
And in February, the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court overturned Oklahoma State’s conviction of Richard Glossip and ordered a new trial, finding he did not receive a fair trial. This request was exceptionally supported by both the prosecution and the defense.
