It's been a wild start to 2026. If you’ve been following the headlines, you know the death penalty in America is currently a mess of contradictions. On one hand, we’re seeing a massive surge in executions in certain states—Florida, looking at you—while on the other, public support is basically tanking to historic lows.
Honestly, it's a bit of a whiplash.
Last year was a grim milestone. We saw 47 executions in 2025, which is nearly double what we saw the year before. Most of that was driven by Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis, who signed off on 19 of those. To put that in perspective, that’s 40% of the entire country’s total in just one state. But while some states are hitting the gas, the rest of the country seems to be hitting the brakes.
The 2026 Execution Schedule: Who is Next?
We aren't even three weeks into January 2026, and the calendar is already packed. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, there are currently 19 execution dates scheduled across six states for this year.
Pennsylvania was supposed to start us off on January 2nd with Richard Roland Laird, but Governor Shapiro issued a reprieve. He’s been pretty vocal about not signing death warrants, so that wasn’t a huge surprise. The next big one on the radar is Charles Victor Thompson in Texas, scheduled for January 28th. Texas and Florida are basically the heavy hitters here, but we’re also seeing dates set in Oklahoma, Ohio, and Tennessee.
It’s not just about the numbers, though. It’s about the who.
Take Christa Pike in Tennessee, for example. She’s scheduled for September 30th. If that goes through, she’d be the first woman executed in the U.S. in years. Her case has been a lightning rod for activists because of her age at the time of the crime and her documented mental health struggles.
The Nitrogen Gas Controversy Isn't Going Away
Remember the outcry over Alabama using nitrogen gas? Yeah, that hasn't cooled down. In October 2025, Alabama executed Anthony Boyd using nitrogen hypoxia, and the witness reports were pretty haunting. They talked about "violent thrashing" and "agonized breaths."
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Alabama claims it's "flawless."
The people in the room usually say otherwise.
Despite the horror stories, other states are jumping on the bandwagon. Louisiana and Oklahoma have already authorized it. Why? Because getting the drugs for lethal injections is getting nearly impossible. Pharmaceutical companies don't want their products associated with killing people. It’s gotten so bad that Florida recently passed HB 903, which basically says the state can use any method that hasn't been specifically ruled unconstitutional. That’s a pretty broad net to cast.
What the Supreme Court is Doing (And Not Doing)
The U.S. Supreme Court is in a weird spot. In 2025, they didn't grant a single stay of execution. Not one. If you're on death row and you're looking to the highest court in the land to stop the clock, the odds are currently zero.
But they are taking cases.
- Hamm v. Smith: This is a big one. It’s about how we measure intellectual disability. If the court rules that states can rely solely on IQ scores, it could strip protections from thousands of inmates who have clear cognitive impairments but happen to score a 71 instead of a 70.
- Terry Pitchford: This case out of Mississippi is looking at race-based jury discrimination. We've known for a long time that the death penalty hits Black and Latine communities harder, and this case could actually force states to be more transparent about how they pick juries.
The court has also been tossing some wins to inmates on narrow procedural grounds. Brenda Andrew in Oklahoma had her appeal vacated because the prosecution used "highly sexualized" evidence—calling her a "slut puppy" and showing her underwear to the jury—that had nothing to do with the crime. The court didn't say she was innocent; they just said the trial was a circus.
The Massive Disconnect in Public Opinion
Here is the part that most people get wrong about death penalty news updates: the spike in executions doesn't mean the public wants more of them.
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It’s actually the opposite.
Gallup just reported that support for capital punishment has hit a 50-year low at 52%. Even more interesting? For the first time, a majority of people under 55 actually oppose it. Juries are feeling this, too. Last year, when juries were given the choice between life without parole and the death penalty, more than half chose life.
There were only 23 new death sentences handed out in the whole country last year. Compare that to the 1990s when we were seeing 300 a year. It's a massive shift. We are basically seeing a handful of politicians in a few states trying to keep a system alive that the rest of the country is moving away from.
International Pressure is Mounting
We can't talk about this without looking at the rest of the world. The U.S. is becoming a bit of a pariah on this issue. We are the only country in the Americas that still executes people.
Just this week, the UN Security Council held an emergency meeting on Iran because they’ve been executing protesters at an alarming rate—at least 972 people in 2024. But when the U.S. criticizes Iran or Saudi Arabia, those countries point right back at us.
Even within our own borders, the map is shrinking. Delaware and Washington have officially wiped the statutes off their books recently. Ohio’s Governor DeWine keeps issuing reprieves because he literally can’t find the drugs and doesn't want to deal with the legal fallout of a botched execution.
Misconduct and the "Innocence Problem"
If you want to know why juries are hesitant, look at the exoneration data. Official misconduct—police coercing witnesses, prosecutors hiding evidence—is the number one reason people are wrongly convicted in death cases.
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It’s not some rare "movie plot" thing.
It happens in nearly 70% of wrongful death penalty cases involving Black defendants. We’re seeing more and more cases where DNA testing, which was denied for decades, finally gets approved and proves the state had the wrong person. Ruben Gutierrez in Texas is fighting that exact battle right now, trying to get DNA testing on a crime scene from 15 years ago. The state is fighting him every step of the way because, under Texas law, you can only get DNA testing if it proves you didn't commit the crime, not just that you shouldn't be executed for it.
Kinda messed up, right?
Actionable Insights for Following the News
If you’re trying to keep up with this, don't just look at the raw number of executions. That doesn't tell the whole story. To really understand where the death penalty is headed, watch these three things:
- State Legislative Sessions: Watch for "secrecy laws." States like Florida and Idaho are passing laws to hide where they get their execution drugs. When a government starts hiding its sources, it’s usually because those sources are controversial.
- Jury Verdicts: This is the real pulse of the country. If juries in "red" states start consistently returning life sentences, the death penalty is effectively dead, regardless of what the law says.
- The "Atkins" Standard: Keep an eye on the Hamm v. Smith ruling. It will determine if the U.S. is going to follow modern medical science or go back to using arbitrary numbers to decide who lives and dies.
The death penalty in 2026 isn't a settled issue. It’s a tug-of-war between a shrinking group of active states and a growing national and international movement toward abolition. Whether you’re for it or against it, the system is clearly struggling to function under the weight of its own legal and ethical baggage.
Stay informed by checking the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) monthly reports and following the SCOTUS emergency docket. The next few months, especially with the cases in Texas and Oklahoma, are going to set the tone for the rest of the year.