It’s been a busy summer for executions in the United States, with seven men having already been executed since June. Another five are set to be put to death during a week-long period in September.
At more than 1,590 executions in the past five decades, the United States is an outlier among developed nations when it comes to the ultimate punishment, with more than 70% of nations globally having banned the practice, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
In 2020, for instance, only five other countries executed more of its citizens than the United States: China, Iran, Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, according to the center. Globally in 2023, the number of people put to death jumped by 30%, making it the deadliest year in nearly a decade, according to a new report released Tuesday by Amnesty International.
With the U.S. on pace to execute at least 19 prisoners this year, and more expected to be scheduled, USA TODAY looked at the states that have executed the most inmates, which states have banned the practice, and how many innocent people have been put to death in the process.
What states still have the death penalty?
Twenty-one states have the death penalty. They are: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wyoming, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Six states still consider the death penalty legal but have put executions on hold for various reasons, like the shaky reliability of execution drugs: Arizona, California, Oregon, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.
The rest of the United States − 23 in total − do not have the death penalty, including red states like North Dakota and Alaska, and the bluest of states, like Vermont and Massachusetts.
Who is executing the most inmates?
Texas has executed the most inmates of any other state in the nation, and it's not even close. The Lone Star state has put 589 inmates to death since 1982, most recently the Aug. 7 execution of Arthur Lee Burton for the murder of Nancy Adleman, a 48-year-old mother of three.
Texas executed eight inmates last year and three so far this year, with at least two more men set to be put to death in the state by the end of 2024.
The following are the five states with the most executions since the early 1980s, according to the Death Penalty Information Center:
- Texas, 589
- Oklahoma, 125
- Virginia, 113
- Florida, 106
- Missouri, 99
How many executions will there be in 2024?
So far this year, there have been 13 executions, three each in Alabama and Texas, two each in Oklahoma and Missouri, and one each in Utah, Florida and Georgia.
There are seven more currently scheduled through the end of the year: Freddie Eugene Owens in South Carolina on Sept. 20, Travis James Mullis in Texas on Sept. 24, Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams in Missouri on Sept. 24, Alan Eugene Miller in Alabama on Sept. 26, Emmanuel Antonio Littlejohn in Oklahoma on Sept. 26, Garcia Glen White in Texas on Oct. 1, and Robert Leslie Roberson III in Texas on Oct. 17.
More executions are could be scheduled before the end of 2024 but it's unclear how many exactly.
The most recent execution happened Thursday, when Florida executed its first inmate of the year, Loran Cole, in the 1994 murder of an 18-year-old college student whose big sister was raped during what started as a fun camping weekend and turned into a family's worst nightmare.
Three weeks before that, Texas and Utah had back-to-back executions, with two death row inmates dying within about seven hours of each other. First, there was Texas's execution of Arthur Lee Burton, who was pronounced dead at 6:47 p.m. CT on Aug. 7. And on Aug. 8, Taberon Dave Honie was pronounced dead at 12:25 a.m. MT after being executed for the 1998 murder of his then-girlfriend's mother, 49-year-old Claudia Benn. It was Utah's first execution since the state executed Ronnie Lee Gardner by firing squad in 2010.
How many innocent people have been executed?
It's impossible to say how many innocent people have been executed but we do know that dozens and dozens of inmates have been wrongfully sentenced to death in the past five decades. Some have spent decades of their lives in prison before being exonerated.
One June 19 in Texas, the state's Court of Criminal Appeals exonerated Kerry Max Cook after he spent nearly 20 years on death row in the murder of Linda Jo Edwards. The court found him innocent, writing in its opinion that the case "is riddled with allegations of State misconduct that warrant setting aside" Cook's conviction.
At least 190 people have been exonerated from death row in the U.S. since 1973, largely Black and Latinx inmates who are wrongfully convicted at a higher rate than white people, according to the Death Penalty Information Center and the Innocence Project.
A 2014 study by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences estimated that at least 4% of people sentenced to death are innocent.
Contributing: Michael Loria
