While U.S. public opinion is shifting against the use of the death penalty, there was a near 100% increase in executions in 2025. The Death Penalty Information Center reported that there were 48 prisoner executions in 2025, up from 25 prisoner executions in 2024. Florida executed 19 prisoners, accounting for nearly 40% of the executions in 2025.
Louisiana and Alabama both killed two condemned prisoners using nitrogen gas. Advocates have said the use of nitrogen gas poses the risk of a slow, agonizing death. Alabama murderer Anthony Boyd reportedly took around 20 minutes to die during his execution by gas.
South Carolina executed two inmates by firing squad, the first such executions in the U.S. in 15 years. Lawyers alleged that one of those executions was botched, leading to the inmate suffering before dying.
Though executions were up in 2025, data indicate a growing public opposition to the death penalty, both in poll numbers and in the declining number of prisoners condemned to death in the United States.
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