Twenty-seven states have the death penalty on the books: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. The federal government and the U.S. military also authorize capital punishment.1Death Penalty Information Center. State by State Four of those 27 states, however, are not currently carrying out executions, and a handful of others have gone decades without one.
Where Executions Actually Happen
Keeping the death penalty on the books is one thing. Using it is another. Ten of the 27 states have not executed anyone in at least a decade. Kansas and Wyoming have not carried out a single execution since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976.2Death Penalty Information Center. States With No Recent Executions
The practice is concentrated. In 2025, roughly 60 percent of all executions in the country took place in just three states: Texas, Florida, and South Carolina. The pace nationally accelerated that year, with 27 executions in the first seven months, up from 25 in all of 2024.2Death Penalty Information Center. States With No Recent Executions
States With Active Execution Moratoriums
Four states retain the death penalty by statute but have paused executions through executive action. A moratorium is not abolition. The underlying law stays intact, courts can still impose death sentences, and the next governor can lift the pause without any vote by the legislature.3Death Penalty Information Center. Twenty Years Since Last Execution
California
Governor Gavin Newsom signed Executive Order N-09-19 in March 2019, halting executions, repealing the state’s lethal injection protocol, and closing the execution chamber at San Quentin State Prison.4Governor of California. Governor Gavin Newsom Orders a Halt to the Death Penalty in California California has not executed anyone since 2006 and still has the largest death row in the country.
Oregon
Oregon’s pause began in 2011 under Governor John Kitzhaber and continued under Governor Kate Brown. In December 2022, Brown commuted the sentences of all 17 people on the state’s death row to life without parole.5State of Oregon. Governor Kate Brown Commutes Oregon’s Death Row Oregon’s last execution was in 1997.
Pennsylvania
Governor Josh Shapiro announced in February 2023 that he would continue the moratorium established by his predecessor Tom Wolf and pledged not to sign any death warrants while in office. He has urged the legislature to repeal capital punishment entirely.6Death Penalty Information Center. Pennsylvania Governor Issues Reprieve for Richard Laird Pennsylvania has not executed anyone since 1999.
Ohio
Ohio’s situation is less formal. Governor Mike DeWine has repeatedly issued reprieves pushing scheduled executions further out, creating what the state’s attorney general has called an “unofficial moratorium.” The state has not executed anyone since July 2018. Lawmakers are considering legislation to authorize nitrogen hypoxia, and the state has said it is waiting on federal help to obtain lethal injection drugs.7Ohio Attorney General. Report – Ohio’s Capital-Punishment Gridlock a Mockery to Justice and Victims
States That Have Abolished the Death Penalty
Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have formally removed capital punishment through legislation or court rulings. The year each state did so varies by more than a century:
- Alaska (1957)
- Colorado (2020)
- Connecticut (2012)
- Delaware (2016)
- Hawaii (1957)
- Illinois (2011)
- Iowa (1965)
- Maine (1887)
- Maryland (2013)
- Massachusetts (1984)
- Michigan (1847)
- Minnesota (1911)
- New Hampshire (2019)
- New Jersey (2007)
- New Mexico (2009)
- New York (2007)
- North Dakota (1973)
- Rhode Island (1984)
- Vermont (1972)
- Virginia (2021)
- Washington (2023)
- West Virginia (1965)
- Wisconsin (1853)
Virginia’s 2021 repeal made it the first state in the former Confederacy to end capital punishment. Washington’s abolition in 2023 came after the state Supreme Court struck down the death penalty in 2018 as unconstitutional due to racial bias in its application; Governor Jay Inslee signed the follow-up legislation removing it from state law in April 2023.8Death Penalty Information Center. Washington’s Unconstitutional Death-Penalty Law Stricken from the Books
The Federal Death Penalty
Federal capital punishment operates on its own track. It can apply to crimes committed anywhere in the country, including inside states that have abolished the death penalty for state offenses. Federal law authorizes it for dozens of crimes, including espionage, treason, genocide, murder of a federal officer, and certain drug trafficking offenses resulting in death.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 3591 – Sentence of Death
The federal government executed 13 people between July 2020 and January 2021, ending a 17-year pause. The Biden administration then imposed a federal execution moratorium in 2021. On his first day in office in January 2025, President Trump signed an executive order titled “Restoring the Death Penalty and Promoting Public Safety,” directing the attorney general to resume federal executions and directing the Department of Justice to help states obtain lethal injection drugs. Attorney General Pamela Bondi formally lifted the moratorium through a memorandum in February 2026.10United States Department of Justice. Department of Justice Proposes Rule to More Quickly Achieve Justice in State Death Penalty Cases
Crimes That Can Carry a Death Sentence
Not every murder is eligible. Almost every state that authorizes capital punishment requires proof of at least one “aggravating factor” beyond the killing itself. Common aggravators include a murder committed during another serious felony like robbery, kidnapping, or sexual assault; the victim being a law enforcement officer, child, or public official; a killing done for hire; or the defendant having prior murder convictions.11Death Penalty Information Center. Aggravating Factors by State
In 2008, the Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment bars a death sentence for crimes against individuals that do not result in the victim’s death, while leaving open the possibility of capital punishment for offenses against the state such as treason or espionage.12Justia Law. Kennedy v Louisiana, 554 US 407 (2008) State capital statutes are therefore limited to forms of murder, while federal law can reach non-homicide offenses.
Who Cannot Be Executed
Two Supreme Court decisions place constitutional limits on who can face a death sentence even when the crime qualifies.
No one can be sentenced to death for a crime committed before turning 18. The Court set that rule in 2005, citing the diminished culpability of minors.13Justia Law. Roper v Simmons, 543 US 551 (2005) The federal statute mirrors this, barring a death sentence for anyone under 18 at the time of the offense.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 3591 – Sentence of Death
Executing a person with an intellectual disability also violates the Eighth Amendment. The 2002 ruling generally looks at significantly below-average intellectual functioning (often assessed with IQ scores around 70 or below), substantial deficits in adaptive behavior, and onset before age 18. States keep some discretion in how they apply the standard, and borderline cases continue to produce litigation.14Justia Law. Atkins v Virginia, 536 US 304 (2002)
How States Carry Out Executions
Lethal injection is the default method in every state that executes, but difficulty obtaining the drugs has pushed several states to authorize alternatives. The backup methods currently on the books include:
- Electrocution, authorized in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
- Nitrogen hypoxia, authorized in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Oklahoma. Alabama became the first state to use it, in January 2024. Arkansas signed legislation authorizing it in March 2025.
- Firing squad, authorized in Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah. Idaho made the firing squad its primary method effective July 2026, displacing lethal injection.
- Lethal gas, retained as an option in Arizona, California, and Missouri, though rarely used.
Idaho’s move to make the firing squad its primary method reflects how hard some states have found it to obtain execution drugs.15Death Penalty Information Center. Authorized Methods by State