The Insight: Where Does America Stand on the Death Penalty?

Where Does America Stand on the Death Penalty?

What the Christa Pike and Nidal Malik Hasan cases reveal.

The Insight provides you the full picture of facts and viewpoints on a top issue for Americans each week, powered by your questions and balanced answers from our multipartisan news team.

The Questions

Why is the death penalty in America’s focus right now?

The death penalty has been at the forefront of American conversation lately, driven by a few high-profile state and federal cases that have called into focus questions around executive power, human rights, and administrative competence.

The first comes from Tennessee, with the botched execution of convicted murderer Christa Pike. Pike – who made headlines just before her planned execution by requesting an all-female team to administer it – was left hospitalized after two doses of lethal injection failed to stop her heart. She has since been released from the hospital and is back behind bars, but mentally impaired. Some have argued that her newfound intellectual disability may prevent her from being executed. In media coverage, commentary from the left focused on the broader ethics and human rights concerns surrounding the death penalty, and perspectives on the right maintained that the severity of Pike's original crime warranted the ultimate sentence regardless of administrative hurdles. Read more on what AllSides observed in coverage of Pike’s failed execution here.

Shortly thereafter, at the federal level, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sparked intense pushback from critics when he announced that the death by firing squad of Fort Hood mass shooter Nidal Malik Hasan would be carried out publicly and live-streamed. Hasan, a Palestinian-American physician who served as a Major in the US Army, killed 13 soldiers and injured 32 others in a 2009 act of domestic terror. President Trump has since waved off the livestream, saying that while it could have served as a deterrent, many “well-meaning people would rather not watch him die.” When the livestream was announced, voices on the left condemned the initial proposal as barbaric and potentially damaging to the public, while some from the right framed it as long-overdue retribution. Read more on how media covered Hegseth’s initial plan here.

Though it’s a question that has been relevant for decades and likely will be for more to come, with the current news pegs in mind, the question remains: where does America stand on the death penalty?

Which states have the death penalty?

The death penalty is legal in 27 states, while 23 states and Washington, D.C., have abolished it. Out of the states that maintain capital punishment, 20 are red states, three are blue states, and four are swing states.

Four states that practice the death penalty currently have pauses on it, however. California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania – all led by Democratic governors – have formal moratoriums in place. In Ohio, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine has paused executions since 2019, and in June of this year called for formal abolition.

How do Americans feel about the death penalty?

A Pew Research (Center) study from 2026 suggested 66% of Americans favored the death penalty for people convicted of murder and 32% opposed it. Republicans gave more uniform answers than Democrats, with 84% of Republicans in favor and Democrats split – 51% supported it, and 48% opposed it.

Gallup (Center) found in a 2025 phone poll that only 52% of Americans favored capital punishment in cases of murder, the lowest support Gallup has recorded since 1972.

Recent Media Perspectives

Recently, in camps that oppose the death penalty, a few arguments have arisen. One argument in opposition is that executions, as exemplified by Pike’s case, sometimes fail, causing pain, disability, and other “cruel and unusual” side effects. A writer for The Tennessean (Center) argued that Pike’s botched execution revealed “a larger pattern” in history of improper and inappropriate procedures, protocols, and oversight to ensure that executions happen successfully and humanely. In light of multiple similar failures, Tacuma Roeback argued that citizens may not be able to trust states to correct their incompetencies and complete merciful and just executions.

Similarly, others who oppose capital punishment have been critical of the government’s ability to decide a citizen’s death. Though individuals may believe that people convicted of murder don’t deserve to live, Rex Huppke (Left), writing for USA Today (Lean Left), argued that “not wanting our government to kill criminals isn't the same as wanting a murderer to live.” Despite the depravity of the crimes committed by people on death row, some who oppose the death penalty believe that the justice system is too fallible to protect people who are actually innocent or to fairly distribute capital punishment to some criminals and not others.

On the other side, supporters of capital punishment frequently see it as morally just or necessary retribution for certain crimes and as a way to provide closure for victims’ families. When a murder is particularly unique or heinous, such as in Pike’s case, some individuals feel that the perpetrator does not deserve to live, and that killing that person is required both to protect morality and the public from that person.

Separate from the question of capital punishment in general, the majority of Americans seem to believe executions should not be made public. Washington Post (Lean Left) reported that 8 out of 10 Americans were opposed to the execution being livestreamed, regardless of their stance on the death penalty.

Which other countries use the death penalty?

Currently, 114 countries have abolished capital punishment, while 53 retain it in law and practice.

In 2025, only 17 countries executed criminals, and the United States was the only bona fide Western country to do so. Additionally, Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Trinidad and Tobago, and Yemen carried out executions.

According to The Business Standard, China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia accounted for the majority of executions in 2025. The publication wrote, “China carries out more executions than any other country, with thousands of people executed annually, although exact figures are kept as a classified state secret… Iran and Saudi Arabia together accounted for 93% of all confirmed executions worldwide in 2025, excluding China.”

Iran and Saudi combined for 1,856 executions, the publication noted.

How much does it cost to execute someone vs. keep them in prison for life?

A 2008 report from the state of California in the late 2000s found the death penalty cost the state $137 million per year. It broke down the costs as follows:

• $57.5 million for trial defense and prosecution costs
• $29.0 million for automatic post-conviction appeals and state supreme court review
• $40.0 million for federal habeas corpus appeals
• $11.2 million for extra security and housing specific to death row inmates

That total figure, adjusted for inflation using the US Consumer Price Index average today, would be over $213 million.

These costs can very much differ based on the state. According to Britannica, “The statistics are lower but comparable across other states, including Kansas, Tennessee, and Maryland.”

A 2025 report from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office found that executing someone cost between $116 million and $384 million more than incarcerating them for life without parole.

Does the death penalty deter crime?

A common argument for the death penalty is that it serves as a deterrent that dissuades people from committing crimes. It makes sense that being put to death for a crime may make others think twice about committing similar crimes, but is that what actually occurs?

It’s difficult to track direct causation, but much research has been done on the correlation, or lack thereof, between crime and the death penalty. Several studies, including ones from the City University of New York, Dartmouth, and others, have found that the death penalty does not seem to deter crime. Homicide rates have actually tended to be lower in states without it.

However, capital punishment does prevent criminals, who have a high rate of recidivism, from reoffending if released. According to a 2021 report from the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) that tracked figures from 2012, those who committed homicide were 41% likely to commit a violent crime again once released – putting them on the lower end of recidivism rates compared to other kinds of offenders (such as property crime or robbery).