Executions nearly double in 2025 due to dramatic rise in Florida : NPR

The number of U.S. executions in 2025 nearly doubled from the previous year as Florida executed more inmates in 12 months than ever before, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

An organization that monitors the death penalty published its annual report on Monday. This showed a complex picture: although public support for the death penalty remained low, the number of executions was increasing.

“These trends show that there is a real gap between what the American public wants and what elected officials are doing about the death penalty,” said Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center (DPI). The group does not take a position on the death penalty itself, but is critical of how it is applied.

States carried out 46 executions in 2025, up from 25 in 2024, according to the report. Georgia and Florida later this week, bringing the total to 48, the highest in more than 15 years.

Nineteen people – about 40% of the country's total – have been or will be executed in Florida this year.

The sharp rise coincides with President Trump's second term. ardent supporter of the death penalty. Since returning to office, Trump has ordered a resumption of federal executions, prompting were suspended former President Joe Biden in 2021. The last federal executions took place in the final days of the Trump administration. first term.

Florida is responsible for 40% of executions nationwide this year.

This year, Florida broke the record for the most executions carried out in one year, having previously stood at eight in 2014.

IN press conference in NovemberFlorida Gov. Ron DeSantis said there were executions in the state. delayed due to COVID-19 pandemic but these problems have since been resolved. He said he owed it to the victims' families to ensure the death sentence was carried out “smoothly and quickly.”

“We've heard from many family members of victims over the years and when you think about it, some of these crimes were committed in the '80s and they're waiting, there's an appeal and this and that,” he said. “There’s a saying: justice delayed is justice denied.”

DeSantis said he also believes the death penalty can be a “strong deterrent” to crime. “I believe this is an appropriate punishment for the worst offenders,” he added.

On Thursday, Florida is scheduled to execute its 19th person this year. Frank Walls, 58, was sentenced to death after being convicted of killing Edward Alger and Ann Peterson during a home robbery in 1987. Walls later confessed to three other murders.

The second-highest number of executions in the state was five – this happened in Alabama, South Carolina and Texas.

Among those executed were prisoners with post-traumatic stress disorder and signs of mental retardation.

At least 40 death row inmates who were or will be executed this year had what the DPI called “vulnerabilities,” such as brain damage, serious mental illness, severe childhood trauma or an IQ in the mental retardation range, the report said.

“Many would not or could not be sentenced to death today due to changes in the law and society's understanding of the consequences of mental illness and severe trauma,” Maher said.

In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled that executing people with mental disabilities is unconstitutional, declaring that such punishment is cruel and unusual and therefore violates the Eighth Amendment. However, states were allowed to establish their own procedures for assessing mental retardation.

Now the nation the highest court is considering how states should use IQ test scores to assess intelligence. Disability human rights groups say a narrow focus on IQ scores could lead to the execution of more people with intellectual disabilities.

Also 10 veterans will be executed this year, the highest number in nearly two decades, according to the report. Last year, three veterans were executed.

This year's figure included Geoffrey Hutchinson, who was executed in May for the murder of his friend Renee Flaherty and her three children in 1998. His lawyers argued that Hutchinson suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury while serving in the Gulf War.

Many veterans sentenced to death were sentenced to death by juries without adequate information about what physical or psychological injuries they suffered during their military service, Maher said.

“The vulnerabilities and difficulties they faced as a result of their military service were not adequately presented to the jury,” she added.

The number of death sentences and public support for the death penalty are trending downward.

The number of new death sentences fell this year, continuing a decade-long downward trend. The report states that 22 people received new death sentences in 2025. In 2005, this number was 139.

New death sentences were handed down in eight states – Florida, California, Alabama, Texas, North Carolina, Arizona, Missouri and Pennsylvania.

The report says prosecutors are using the death penalty less often than they did two decades ago because it tends to result in costly and lengthy cases. There is also growing reluctance among jurors to impose the death penalty, Maher said.

“What we think is consistent with the long-term trends that we've seen over the last several decades is that American society is moving away from the use of the death penalty,” she said.

According to October pollGallup found that 52% of Americans support the death penalty for a person convicted of murder, the lowest level since 1972.