State-sanctioned killings reached their highest number in 44 years, with 2,707 executions in 2025 — an increase of 78% from 1,518 in 2024.
Globally, more than two-thirds of countries have abolished the death penalty, while only 17 nations had executions in 2025. But those 17 more than made up for the rest.
Amnesty International monitors the global use of the death penalty and reported that these figures do not include the thousands of executions believed to be carried out in China.
The U.S. saw a sharp increase in executions — 47 across 11 states, up from 25 in 2024. The U.S. is the only country in the Americas to have carried out executions last year.
Florida led the count with 19 executions, making up 40% of national executions. The state's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, has called the death penalty a “strong deterrent” to crime and stated his view that “it's an appropriate punishment for the worst offenders.”
Part of the rise in recorded executions also came from a spike in Iran, where 2,159 executions took place — more than double the 2024 figure of 972, and the highest number since 1981. Saudi Arabia also drove up these numbers with 356 executions, topping the previous year’s record high.
Close to half of known executions (1,257) were for drug-related offenses. But per international law and standards, the death penalty must be restricted to “most serious crimes” — and that doesn’t include drug-related offenses. Five countries — China, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Singapore — were known to have carried out executions for drug-related offenses in 2025.
Perseverance and mercy
He said:
[T]he Holy See wholeheartedly supports every initiative that seeks to establish an effective, just, humane and credible criminal justice system capable of preventing and countering the production and the trafficking of illicit drugs.
Recognizing that true justice cannot be satisfied with punishment alone, such efforts must likewise embrace approaches marked by perseverance and mercy, aimed at the re-education and full reintegration of offenders into the fabric of society.
The same respect for the inherent dignity of every person, including those who have committed crimes, precludes the use of the death penalty, torture, and every form of cruel or degrading punishment.
A pro-life concern
Given the advances in prisons and detainment, the Catholic Church opposes the death penalty as a violation of human dignity.
St. John Paul II wrote in Evangelium Vitae that cases requiring the death penalty are “very rare, if not practically non-existent.” Pope Francis, in a 2018 modification of the Catechism, stated the case even more strongly with these words:
More effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption…
The Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person, and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide.
Pope Leo XIV cited Pope Francis’ words in a recent video message honoring the 15th anniversary of the death penalty being abolished in his home state of Illinois. His message aired the same day that US President Donald Trump signed an executive order reintroducing the firing squad and lethal injection for executions.
Pope Leo told those gathered:
I therefore join you in celebrating the decision made by the Governor of Illinois in 2011, and I likewise offer my support to those who advocate for the abolition of the death penalty in the United States of America and around the world.
I pray that your efforts will lead to a greater acknowledgement of the dignity of every person, and will inspire others to work for the same just cause.
