Global executions hit 44-year high as US death penalty surges

Executions around the world rose to a 44-year high in 2025, with state-sanctioned killings nearly doubling in the United States, according to a new report by Amnesty International.

A total of 2,707 people were executed across 17 countries, marking a 78% increase from 1,518 the previous year, Caliber.Az reports per foreign media.

The sharp rise was driven largely by Iran, which accounted for 2,159 executions, more than double its 2024 figure. The organisation said the increase reflected, in part, the use of capital punishment “as a tool of state repression and to crush dissent” following the 2022 protest movement.

The United States recorded 47 executions across 11 states in 2025, up from 25 a year earlier, making it the only country in the Americas to carry out executions during the period. Florida led the country with 19 executions.

Of the 11 U.S. states that executed prisoners in 2025, Florida led the way with 19 executions.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has supported the expanded use of capital punishment, describing it as a “strong deterrent” and “an appropriate punishment for the worst offenders.” He has also eased procedural requirements, including lowering the threshold for jury unanimity in death penalty cases in 2023.

Justin Mazzola, deputy director for research at Amnesty International, said the U.S. increase was concentrated in Florida.

"Normally, Florida would only execute anywhere between one to two, sometimes a spike of six in a single year," he said. "Last year, they executed 19 individuals, so almost one every couple of weeks," Mazzola said.

Amnesty International describes the death penalty as the “ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.”

Public attitudes in the United States appear to be shifting. Support for capital punishment peaked at 80% in 1994, according to polling by Gallup, but has since declined to 52%, its lowest level in five decades.

Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said juries were increasingly reluctant to impose death sentences.

"Our own research shows that the majority of U.S. juries are rejecting death sentences for a variety of reasons," she said, citing concerns over fairness and wrongful convictions.

"I think it's a growing acknowledgment that the death penalty is a failed policy. It really isn't delivering on the promise it once had of deterring future crime and in punishing an inappropriate way."