A look at the status of US executions in 2025

Twenty-six men have died by court-ordered execution so far this year in the U.S., and 10 other people are scheduled to be put to death in seven states during the remainder of 2025.

Michael B. Bell was executed Tuesday in Florida. Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas and Utah have scheduled executions for later this year.

Executions have been carried out this year in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.

The number of executions this year exceeds the 25 executions carried out last year and in 2018. It is the highest total since 2015, when 28 people were put to death.

The uptick in executions can be traced to aggressive Republican governors and attorney generals pushing to get through lengthy appeals processes and get executions done, said John Blume, the director of the Cornell Death Penalty Project.

A sweeping executive order signed by President Donald Trump on his first day back in office aimed at urging prosecutors to seek the death penalty and preserving capital punishment in the states also may have fueled the increase, Blume said. All but one execution this year has occurred in states run by Republican governors, with Arizona the exception.

Here’s a look at recent executions and those scheduled for the rest of the year, by state:

Florida

Bell, 54, fatally shot a man and woman outside a Jacksonville bar as part of an attempted revenge killing. Bell was convicted in 1995 and sentenced to death for the murders of Jimmy West and Tamecka Smith.

Bell was the eighth person put to death in Florida this year, with a ninth scheduled for later this month.

Edward J. Zakrzewski is scheduled to be put to death in Florida on July 31 for killing his wife and two young children in 1994 after she sought a divorce.

He eventually turned himself into law enforcement after the case was profiled on the television show “Unsolved Mysteries.”

Tennessee

Byron Black, 69, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Aug. 5. Black was convicted in 1989 of three counts of first-degree murder for the shooting deaths of his girlfriend, Angela Clay, and her two daughters in Nashville.

Black’s lawyers have asked a judge to require the Tennessee Department of Correction to deactivate an implanted defibrillation device similar to a pacemaker in the moments before his execution. A ruling in their favor could delay the execution until the state finds someone willing to do the deactivation.

Meanwhile, they are asking the state Supreme Court level to order a lower court to consider their claim that Black is incompetent to be executed.

Harold Nichols, 64, is also scheduled to die by lethal injection on Dec. 11. Nichols was convicted of rape and first-degree felony murder in the 1988 death of Karen Pulley in Hamilton County.

Alabama

David Lee Roberts, 59, is scheduled to be put to death with nitrogen gas on Aug. 21.

Roberts was convicted of killing Annetra Jones in 1992 while he was a houseguest at Jones’ boyfriend’s home in Marion County. Prosecutors said Roberts packed his belongings, stole money and shot Jones three times in the head while she slept on the couch. Roberts set fire to the home to hide evidence.

If carried out, it would be the nation’s seventh execution by nitrogen gas, a method Alabama began using last year as an alternative to lethal injection. The method involves supplying nitrogen gas via a respirator mask to an inmate, causing the person to lose consciousness and die from a lack of oxygen.

Geoffrey T. West, 49, is scheduled to die by nitrogen gas on Sept. 25 for the killing of convenience store clerk Margaret Parrish Berry during a 1997 robbery in Attalla.

Utah

Ralph Leroy Menzies, 67, is scheduled to die by firing squad on Sept. 5. He would become only the sixth U.S. prisoner executed by firing squad since 1977.

Menzies, who has dementia, has been on death row for 37 years for abducting and killing mother of three Maurine Hunsaker, 26, in 1986.

Judge Matthew Bates signed the death warrant a month after he ruled Menzies “consistently and rationally” understands why he is facing execution despite recent cognitive decline. Attorneys for Menzies have petitioned the court for a reassessment.

Bates has scheduled a July 23 hearing to evaluate a new competency petition for Menzies.

Texas

Blaine Milam, 35, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Sept. 25. Milam was convicted of killing his girlfriend’s 13-month-old daughter during what the couple had said was part of an “exorcism” in Rusk County in East Texas in December 2008.

Milam’s girlfriend, Jesseca Carson, was also convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Robert Roberson is scheduled to be executed on Oct. 16.

Roberson, 58, could become the first person in the U.S. to be put to death for a murder conviction tied to shaken baby syndrome. He was convicted of the 2002 killing of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, in the East Texas city of Palestine.

Prosecutors argued he violently shook his daughter back and forth, causing severe head trauma. His lawyers and some medical experts say his daughter died not from abuse but from complications related to pneumonia.

Indiana

Indiana set a tentative execution date of Oct. 10 for Roy Lee Ward, who was convicted of raping and killing a 15-year-old girl in 2001. But that date could change.

Missouri

Lance C. Shockley is scheduled to be executed on Oct. 14, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.

Shockley was found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Dewayne Graham outside his home in Carter County in March 2005.

Testimony at the trial indicated Graham was killed because he was investigating Shockley for involuntary manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident.

Ohio

Earlier this year, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine postponed five executions scheduled for 2025. All five have been delayed until 2028.

In postponing the executions, DeWine has cited the state’s inability to secure the drugs used in lethal injections due to pharmaceutical suppliers’ unwillingness.

DeWine has said that he does not anticipate any further executions will happen during his term, which runs through 2026.

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Associated Press reporters Juan A. Lozano in Houston and Kate Payne in Tallahassee, Florida, contributed.