WASHINGTON — The United States recorded its highest number of executions since 2009 in 2025, with 47 people executed across 11 states, as the Supreme Court denied every request to delay an execution during a nationwide surge in death penalty cases, according to reporting by Kelsey Dallas writing in SCOTUSblog.
According to Dallas’ reporting in SCOTUSblog, several factors contributed to the surge, including renewed federal support for capital punishment under the Trump administration, an increase in executions in Florida, states such as Arizona resuming executions after ending longstanding death penalty moratoriums, and the Supreme Court of the United States denying every request to postpone an execution.
Dallas reported that the Supreme Court denied all 34 emergency stay applications filed in 2025 by people on death row seeking to challenge their convictions or death sentences, most often without noting any disagreement among the justices or issuing a written dissent.
According to SCOTUSblog’s database of capital cases, Dallas reported that only six of the court’s orders in 2025 acknowledged any disagreement among the justices, and just three included written dissents. Nearly all recorded dissent came from the court’s liberal wing.
Justice Neil Gorsuch was the only Republican appointee to publicly dissent, doing so in Hoffman v. Westcott. In that case, Jessie Hoffman challenged Louisiana’s plan to execute him using nitrogen hypoxia, arguing that the method interfered with his Buddhist faith, Dallas reported.
In the other dissents, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson criticized the court’s refusal to address unresolved legal questions raised by people on death row, according to Dallas’ reporting.
Dallas highlighted that in Crawford v. Mississippi, Sotomayor argued the court had “abandoned its duty” by declining to resolve whether a prior Supreme Court ruling restricting defense counsel from conceding a client’s guilt over the client’s objection applies retroactively to cases on collateral review.
Sotomayor also issued a notable nine-page dissent in Boyd v. Hamm, in which Anthony Boyd requested execution by firing squad instead of nitrogen hypoxia. Boyd argued that nitrogen hypoxia would result in slow suffocation, violating the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Sotomayor concluded, Dallas reported, that the court had denied Boyd “the barest form of mercy” by refusing his request to die by firing squad.
So far in 2026, Dallas reported that the Supreme Court has denied one emergency stay application without a noted dissent. At least 18 executions are scheduled for the remainder of the year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Dallas reported that two cases expected to be discussed in early July will examine the role IQ tests should play in applying the constitutional ban on executing people who are intellectually disabled and whether a litigant has forfeited the right to challenge potential racial discrimination in jury selection.
As executions continue to be scheduled across the country in 2026, Dallas reported that the Supreme Court is expected to receive additional emergency stay requests, with those decisions likely to remain a central factor in how death penalty cases move forward in the United States.
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