The shape of the systemCapital punishment in America is not one system but fifty-two — fifty states, the federal government and the military — and the differences between them matter more than anything they share. Twenty-seven states have no active death penalty: 23 have abolished it outright and four more (California, Ohio, Oregon and Pennsylvania) keep it on the books under a governor's moratorium. Thirty-two states have not carried out an execution in at least a decade. The federal government has executed 16 people since 1977 — about 1% of the national total — and holds three people on death row.
What remains is concentrated to a degree that is easy to miss from the national numbers. Texas alone accounts for 600 of the 1,671 modern executions, or 36%. Five states — Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Missouri and Alabama — account for roughly two-thirds. In 2025, Florida carried out 19 of the country's 47 executions. So "America has the death penalty" and "most of America has stopped executing people" are both true statements about the same year.
1 · The charging decision
No one is sentenced to death unless an elected county prosecutor decides to seek it. That choice is discretionary and, as a practical matter, unreviewable — which is why capital punishment clusters not just in states but in particular counties within them. The same murder can carry realistic death exposure in one county and none next door.
2 · The bifurcated trial
Gregg (1976) requires capital trials be split in two: first guilt, then a separate sentencing phase where the jury weighs enumerated aggravating factors against mitigating ones. This structure — plus qualified counsel and automatic appellate review — is what makes capital cases cost multiples of ordinary murder trials. It exists because Furman found the unstructured version unconstitutional.
3 · Death qualification
Jurors categorically opposed to capital punishment can be struck for cause, so the sentencing jury is drawn from a narrowing slice of the public as national support falls. Even so, DPIC found 56% of capital juries recommended life over death in 2025, and only 15 juries nationwide agreed unanimously to impose death.
4 · Decades of appeals
Direct appeal, state post-conviction review, then federal habeas. Prisoners executed in 2023 had spent an average of 279 months — over 23 years — on death row. Most death sentences never end in execution: far more people leave death row through reversal, resentencing or death by other causes.
5 · The method
Lethal injection accounts for 1,480 of 1,671 modern executions and is the primary method everywhere but Idaho. Drug shortages and botched executions have pushed states back toward older methods — and to one genuinely new one: Alabama's nitrogen hypoxia, first used in 2024.
6 · Clemency
The last non-judicial safeguard: a governor (or the president federally) can commute a sentence for any reason or none. Illinois's Governor Ryan commuted all 167 death sentences in 2003; President Biden commuted 37 of 40 federal sentences in 2024. DOJ has signalled a rule to restrict federal clemency petitions until appeals conclude.
How the 1,671 modern executions were carried outLethal injection1,480 · 89%
Hover any method for context. Bars are scaled to lethal injection; percentages are of all 1,671 executions since 1977. Source: DPIC fact sheet, July 2026.
Where it still happens · executions since 1977State
Since 1977
2026
Death row
Texas
600
4
169
Florida
135
10
265
Oklahoma
131
2
29
Missouri
102
0
8
Alabama
83
0
159
Georgia
77
0
36
Ohio
56
0
116
South Carolina
50
0
27
Arizona
43
1
110
North Carolina
43
0
124
Texas accounts for 36% of all 1,671 modern executions on its own. Note how poorly death row size predicts executions: California holds 580 people and has executed no one since 2006. Source: DPIC fact sheet, July 2026.