Number of executions in the United States 2015-2021

As of October 6, three executions were carried out by the U.S. federal government in 2021. Three executions were carried out in Texas in the same year.

Death penalty

Texas has performed the most executions since 2015. The U.S. government and military also enforce death penalties. Since 1976, 1,352 executions in the country have been conducted through lethal injection. The United States is one of the countries around the world still using capital punishment. It is estimated that China executed several thousand prisoners in 2019, while Iran executed approximately 251 people . Some 54 percent of U.S. citizens stated that they thought capital punishment was morally acceptable . About 35 percent of death penalty supporters reasoned that this form of punishment was “an eye for an eye” due to the crime, while 14 percent of supporters believed that the death penalty could save taxpayers money due to costs associated with prisons. In general, most states require some form of first-degree murder as the crime that is punishable by death. However, 40 percent of denouncers of the death penalty stated that it was wrong to take a life, while 17 percent reasoned that the persons may be wrongly convicted. Support for capital punishment reached a peak in 1991 at 76 percent of the population agreeing.