Honestly, the numbers are jarring. If you haven't been watching the headlines closely, the landscape of capital punishment in the United States just underwent a massive, high-speed shift. We aren't just talking about a slight uptick. We are talking about a total reversal of a decade-long decline.
In 2025, the U.S. executed 47 people.
That is the highest number in sixteen years. It’s nearly double the 25 executions we saw in 2024. For a long time, the "death penalty is dying" narrative was the standard. But last year, that narrative hit a brick wall. When people search for the latest executions in USA, they usually expect to see one or two quiet cases in the news. Instead, 2025 felt like a floodgate opened, particularly in the South.
Why the Numbers Spiked So Fast
It wasn't a national wave so much as it was a concentrated explosion in a few specific places. Florida alone accounted for 19 of those 47 executions. Think about that for a second. One state was responsible for about 40% of all judicial killings in the entire country. Governor Ron DeSantis signed death warrants at a pace we haven't seen in the modern era of the Florida justice system, shattering the state's previous 2014 record of eight in a year.
Texas, usually the leader in this category, actually took a backseat to Florida, carrying out 15 executions. Together with Alabama and South Carolina, these four states were responsible for nearly three-quarters of the country's total.
But it isn't just about who is doing it; it’s about how they’re doing it.
The Return of "Old" Methods
We saw a weird, almost retro shift in methods last year. South Carolina brought back the firing squad. They actually executed three men using that method in 2025—the first time since 2010 that anyone in the U.S. has been put to death by a hail of bullets. The inmates—Brad Keith Sigmon, Mikal Mahdi, and Stephen Corey Bryant—actually chose the firing squad over the electric chair because the state was having such a hard time getting lethal injection drugs.
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Then there’s the nitrogen gas.
Alabama and Louisiana have leaned hard into nitrogen hypoxia. It’s basically suffocating someone with pure nitrogen. Officials called it "flawless," but media witnesses at the execution of Jessie Hoffman Jr. in Louisiana described something much more gruesome: several minutes of visible shaking and jerking against restraints. It’s a messy, experimental era for the death chamber.
The 2026 Outlook: Who is Next?
As of mid-January 2026, the pace hasn't exactly slowed down, though the first few weeks have seen a mix of active warrants and last-minute reprieves. Currently, there are 19 execution dates scheduled across six states for this year.
The first major date on the calendar is January 28, 2026, in Texas. Charles Victor Thompson is scheduled for lethal injection. Thompson has a wild history—he actually escaped from the Harris County Jail back in 2005 by using a fake ID and a business suit before being caught in Louisiana. Now, two decades later, his time is apparently up.
Right after him, Oklahoma has Kendrick Simpson scheduled for February 12. Simpson’s case has been a flashpoint. His clemency was denied on January 14, despite some Oklahoma senators calling for mercy. He was convicted for a 2012 double murder at an Oklahoma City nightclub.
Here is a quick look at the "active" list for the first half of 2026:
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- Charles Victor Thompson (Texas) - January 28
- Ronald Heath (Florida) - February 10
- Kendrick Simpson (Oklahoma) - February 12
- Cedric Ricks (Texas) - March 11
- James Broadnax (Texas) - April 30
- Edward Busby (Texas) - May 14
- Tony Carruthers (Tennessee) - May 21
- Gerald R. Hand (Ohio) - June 17
It is worth noting that Ohio is a bit of a question mark. Governor Mike DeWine has issued several reprieves recently due to drug shortages, often pushing dates back by years. For example, Antonio Franklin was supposed to be executed in February 2026, but that’s been kicked all the way to 2029.
The Great Disconnect
There is a strange paradox happening right now with the latest executions in USA. While states like Florida and Texas are accelerating, the public is moving the other direction.
Gallup polling from late 2025 showed that support for the death penalty is at a 50-year low—about 52%. If you look at people under the age of 55, a majority actually oppose it now.
Juries are feeling it too. In 2025, out of more than 50 capital trials nationwide, only 15 juries actually returned a death sentence. Prosecutors are seeking it less, and when they do, 56% of juries are choosing life without parole instead. The people being executed today aren't "new" criminals; they are mostly men who were sentenced 20 or 30 years ago when the legal and social climate was totally different.
Take Edward Zakrzewski, executed in Florida in 2025. He was sentenced back in 1996 by a non-unanimous 7-5 jury vote. Today, in almost every state (except Florida and Alabama), you need a unanimous 12-0 vote to send someone to death row. If he were tried today, he’d likely be serving a life sentence.
Legal Walls and Federal Shifts
The U.S. Supreme Court has essentially stopped stepping in. Throughout the 2025 surge, the court’s conservative majority denied almost every single request for a last-minute stay of execution. They’ve signaled pretty clearly that they want these cases resolved, not tied up in decades of appeals.
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On the federal level, things changed overnight when the new administration took over in 2025. President Trump immediately ended the Biden-era moratorium on federal executions. His Attorney General has already authorized two dozen new federal death penalty prosecutions. While there hasn't been a federal execution yet in 2026, the machinery is being greased.
What This Means for You
If you’re trying to keep track of the latest executions in USA, don't just look at the raw numbers. Look at the geography. We are becoming a country of two systems. In places like Pennsylvania and California, the death penalty exists on paper but is practically dead due to governor-imposed moratoriums.
In the South, however, the process is being streamlined. Laws are being passed to shorten appeal timelines and shield the names of drug suppliers from the public.
Practical Steps to Follow This Topic:
- Track the Warrants: The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) maintains a live database. It’s the gold standard for seeing which warrants are "active" versus "stayed."
- Watch the Methods: Keep an eye on the "nitrogen gas" legal battles. As more states struggle to find lethal injection drugs, nitrogen is the next frontier, and the Supreme Court hasn't fully weighed in on the "cruel and unusual" aspect of it yet.
- Local Legislation: If you live in a death penalty state, watch for "secrecy bills." These are becoming common and often prevent the public from knowing where execution drugs come from or who is participating in the process.
The "killing season" of 2025 has set a high-intensity tone for 2026. Whether the numbers keep climbing or the "active" dates in Texas and Tennessee get caught in the courts remains to be seen. But for now, the machinery of death in the U.S. is running faster than it has in nearly two generations.