Death Row in the United States Statistics 2025

Capital punishment has long been a hot-button issue in the United States. Death penalty proponents argue that it serves as a deterrent to others from committing crimes, while its opponents argue that the death penalty has no effect on violent crime rates and is instead cruel and unusual punishment. Here at Banks & Brower, experienced criminal defense attorneys have written this in-depth guide to the death penalty to provide insights into some of the complexities of this method of punishment.

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Death Row History

Nations have used the death penalty for thousands of years, dating back to the Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon in the 18th century B.C.. In the U.S., its use was greatly influenced by the fact that the British had used capital punishment throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance periods, and they and other Europeans brought capital punishment with them to the Americas.

In 1608, Captain George Kendall was executed by firing squad at Jamestown in the colonies, which was the first recorded use of the punishment in what later became the U.S. As concerns about the death penalty grew during the 20th century, leading many other countries to ban it, Americans introduced new methods that were deemed more humane than hanging and other common methods used previously.

The Supreme Court of the United States issued a landmark decision about the death penalty in Furman v. Georgia, 408 US 238 (1972). The Court found that executions were prohibited as cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution when they were handed down arbitrarily and/or capriciously.

This decision nullified all death penalty statutes throughout the country until 1976, when the Supreme Court held in Gregg v. Georgia, 428 US 153 (1976), that Georgia’s reinstated death penalty statute was not arbitrary and capricious, allowing states to move forward with capital punishment as the ultimate penalty. The Court found that the death penalty was not a cruel and unusual punishment when it was used in extreme criminal cases and handed down carefully.

Since that time, other decisions have refined the use of the death penalty, including Atkins v. Virginia, 536 US 304 (2002), in which the Court held that executing intellectually disabled individuals was cruel and unusual, and Roper v. Simmons, 543 US 551 (2005), in which the Court held that executing individuals for crimes committed while they were minors is unconstitutional.

As of mid-2025, 27 states, the U.S. military, and the federal government retain capital punishment as the ultimate penalty. In the District of Columbia and the other 23 states, the death penalty has been abolished.

Indiana is one of the 27 states that retain the death penalty. After a 15-year hiatus, the state executed 49-year-old Joseph Corcoran on Dec. 18, 2024. Corcoran was convicted of killing four people and reportedly suffered from severe mental illness.

Number of Death Row Executions by Year

To understand the trends in capital punishment in the U.S., take a look at this year-by-year table of data from the NAACP LDF:

As you can see, executions rapidly increased during the 1990s to reach 98 executions in 1999 before starting to decline throughout the succeeding years. However, since 25 people have been executed in the U.S. so far in 2025 (as of July 1), it appears the total number of executions could be on the rise again. 

How Many People Are on Death Row?

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund has stated that as of April 1, 2025, nearly 2,100 people were serving sentences on death row in the U.S. Out of those, 46 of the prisoners awaiting execution as of that date were women.

While the  U.S. Census Bureau reports that 75.3% of the population is white and 13.7% Black, a disproportionate percentage of those sentenced to death are Black or members of another minority group. Out of the people currently awaiting execution in the U.S., 876 (42.38%) are white, and 832 (40.25%) are Black. This difference points to disparities in the administration of justice that continue to happen.

Wrongful Convictions and Death Row

Unfortunately, the U.S. criminal justice system is imperfect, and some innocent people have been convicted of crimes and sentenced to capital punishment. The Death Penalty Information Center reports that 200 people on death row have been exonerated since 1973.

A study published in the journal PNAS in 2014 found that an estimated 4% of all criminal defendants who are sentenced to death have been wrongfully convicted. Wrongful convictions can be attributed to a variety of factors, including prosecutorial and police misconduct, eyewitness problems, misidentification, and faulty science. 

Improvements in DNA technology have helped to free some wrongfully convicted people over the past few decades. However, humans are fallible, and more innocent people will likely be wrongfully sentenced to death for crimes they didn’t commit.

Death Sentence Decline 

As previously mentioned, the Death Penalty Information Center has reported that approximately 2,100 people were awaiting execution on death row as of April 2025. In contrast, 3,593 people were on death row in 2000. The population has steadily decreased each year since that time.

The current population can be further broken down as follows:

• People with active death sentences (not overturned) – Approximately 2,100
• People who could be retried and sentenced to death – Approximately 175

Since its peak at the turn of the 21st century, the death row population has dropped by over one-third. This decline can be attributed to exonerations, deaths from other causes, overturned sentences, and resentencings to life or less.

Contact a Criminal Defense Lawyer

If you or your loved one has been charged with a violent crime for which the death penalty might be a potential punishment, it’s crucial for you to seek experienced legal help as soon as possible. The criminal defense attorneys at the Indianapolis law firm of Banks & Brower have more than 80 years of combined experience fighting for our clients’ rights and freedom. Contact us today to schedule a consultation by calling 866-787-9332.