For the first time in 16 years, three men will be executed on the same day in the US. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing BBC News.
On Thursday, Anthony Darrell Hines, 66, Jeremy Williams, 41, and Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez, 71, are scheduled to be executed in Tennessee, Alabama, and Oklahoma, respectively. This reflects a steep rise in executions across the US.
In 2025, there were more than four times as many executions as in 2021, even as juries and the American public became increasingly wary of its use.
President Donald Trump has long been a major supporter of the death penalty, describing it as "an essential tool for deterring and punishing those who would commit the most heinous crimes and acts of lethal violence against American citizens". In 2020, he ended a nearly two-decade moratorium on the federal death penalty by ordering 13 executions over six months. While the moratorium returned under President Biden, on the first day of Trump's second term in 2025, he signed an executive order reinstating the death penalty. No federal executions have been carried out since.
The Trump administration has also expanded protocols to include additional methods of execution, such as firing squad, and readopted lethal injections. The Department of Justice said in April it has streamlined internal processes to expedite death penalty cases. Trump's order also encouraged states to seek the death penalty for every federal crime when a law enforcement officer is killed.
However, Trump's true impact won't be known for several years, said Justin Mazzola, deputy director for research at Amnesty International USA, due to the length of cases and appeals.
There were 47 executions across 11 states in 2025, up from 25 in 2024. About 40% of executions were in Florida, making it the biggest factor in the rise. Just over halfway into 2026, 12 of 19 executions occurred in Florida. Experts attribute this to Governor Ron DeSantis.
"He is the reason we are seeing a record number of executions. He is the reason why Florida is an outlier compared to the rest of the United States," said Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center (DPI). DeSantis has championed laws that make it easier to carry out executions. In 2023, Florida lowered the threshold for capital punishment by reducing the required jurors from 12 to 8. Sexual battery on a minor under 12 became eligible as a capital offense.
DeSantis has called the death penalty a "strong deterrent" and "an appropriate punishment for the worst offenders". Florida's governor has the singular ability to sign a death warrant without court oversight. Pennsylvania has a similar process but has not executed anyone since 1999.
The US is one of the few Western countries that still has the death penalty. In 27 of 50 states, it is legal. California, Ohio, Oregon, and Pennsylvania have paused executions.
Florida's top prosecutor James Uthmeier has staunchly pursued the death penalty. "The people that engage in this type of conduct, their punishment is frankly earned, and it's up to a jury of 12 to determine if that sentence is appropriate or not," said State Attorney William Sheiner. He added that pursuing death is "basically me saying to the community: this is up to you guys to decide if death is appropriate."
Methods of execution are also debated. Pharmaceutical companies have opposed the use of their products, leading to shortages of lethal injection drugs. In 2025, South Carolina began using firing squads. Several botched executions have raised alarm.