U.S.: The Death Penalty and Execution Drugs

Executions in the United States have been on a fairly steady decline in recent years, dropping to 28 last year - the lowest since 1991. A peak of 98 came in 1999.

Difficulty obtaining lethal injection drugs after many manufacturers stopped selling their products for use in executions has made it tough for some states to execute existing death row inmates.

Other reasons for the decline include better legal representation for those facing the death penalty, life-in-prison sentences without parole, and the high cost of death penalty prosecutions.

Georgia is set to execute its oldest death row inmate Tuesday.

Brandon Astor Jones, 72, was convicted in the 1979 killing of convenience store manager Roger Tackett. Van Roosevelt Solomon, who was also convicted and sentenced to death for the killing, was executed in Georgia's electric chair in February 1985.

Here's a look at some death penalty facts and figures.

WHO ALLOWS THE DEATH PENALTY?

Capital punishment is legal in 31 states. But only 6 states - Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia - carried out executions in 2015. Texas had the most with 13, followed by Missouri with 6 and Georgia with 5.

Michigan has the longest-standing ban on the death penalty; the state did away with capital punishment in 1846. 7 states have abolished the death penalty in the past 10 years: Nebraska (2015), Maryland (2013), Connecticut (2012), Illinois (2011), New Mexico (2009), New Jersey (2007) and New York (2007).

But Nebraska's ban faces a test. Death penalty supporters launched a successful drive to get the issue on this year's general election ballot. And New Mexico's ban wasn't retroactive, leaving 2 people on death row.

EXECUTION DRUGS AND SECRECY LAWS

States have scrambled in recent years to find sources of lethal injection drugs after pharmaceutical manufacturers, many of them in Europe, stopped selling their products for use in executions, citing ethical concerns. That has led a number of states to enact laws that shield the identities of their drug suppliers.

The states say pharmacies and companies that are willing to make the drugs fear retaliation from death penalty opponents if their identities are made public.

FALLING NUMBERS

Over the past decade, the number of executions has fallen pretty steadily in the U.S.

2006: 53
2007: 42
2008: 37
2009: 52
2010: 46
2011: 43
2012: 43
2013: 39
2014: 35
2015: 28

The last execution of 2007 was in September in Texas; after that, executions were effectively halted for about seven months while U.S. Supreme Court considered a challenge to a lethal injection method. The court in April 2008 upheld the method, and executions resumed with a May 2008 death in Georgia. That timeline helps explain why the number of executions nationwide dipped more dramatically in 2007 and 2008 and then increased for 2009.

Source: Associated Press, January 30, 2016

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Israel builds execution chamber for Palestinians convicted of murder

In March, the Knesset approved legislation that calls for the execution of Palestinians convicted by a military court of killing Israelis Israeli authorities are preparing a prison wing—replete with an execution chamber—designated specifically for Palestinian prisoners convicted of murder, Israel’s i24NEWS channel reported Tuesday. The move comes after the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) approved legislation in March that calls for the execution of Palestinian prisoners convicted by a military court of murdering Israelis.

Florida executes William Frances Silvia

Florida executed its 13th death row prisoner of the year Tuesday evening amid the state’s aggressive use of the death penalty championed by Governor Ron DeSantis. William Frances Silvia, 61, who was convicted of fatally shooting his estranged wife and injuring his mother-in-law in 2006, was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m. after receiving the lethal three-drug injection at Florida State Prison. At 6 p.m. Tuesday, Silvia was already strapped to a gurney with an IV in his arm when the curtain to the death chamber went up. He remained relatively motionless with his eyes and mouth open throughout most of the execution while a priest sat at his feet and prayed.

Alabama executes Jeremy Williams

Tennessee and Oklahoma have put inmates to death within 30 minutes of each other, and Alabama followed suit hours later as U.S. states executed three men in one day. Tennessee and Oklahoma put inmates to death within 30 minutes of each other Thursday, and Alabama followed suit hours later as U.S. states executed three men by lethal injection in one day for the first time since 2010. The Tennessee man was executed for killing a maid at a motel in 1985, and the Oklahoma man for killing his girlfriend in 2003. In Alabama, a man was put to death Thursday evening for killing a 5-year-old girl he had paid her mother to abuse.

Tennessee | The doctor who helps put prisoners to death

Dr. Mark Fowler assisted in the failed execution of a Tennessee prisoner. Physicians are meant to heal patients—why is he working in the death chamber? Mark Fowler, a physician with 25 years’ experience, stepped beneath the bright lights and approached the middle-aged man lying on a gurney. Around him, people in medical gowns prepared needles and sterile tubing. It had all the appearances of a hospital setting. Fowler had been called in to help establish an IV line through which the 57-year-old man, Tony Carruthers, would be injected with pharmaceutical drugs. The team had struggled to find a vein, so Fowler was summoned to set a central line—an intravenous catheter inserted into the major vein below the collarbone.

Spared execution eight times, oldest inmate in US dies at 101 after 76 years behind bars

Francis Clifford Smith was given his last meal eight times. But after being spared execution each time, he went on to be regarded as the longest-serving prisoner in the US before dying in June at 101 years old. Convicted of murder in 1950 when he was 25, he always maintained his innocence, those who knew him told the BBC. Andrius Banevicius, the public information officer for Connecticut's Department of Correction, recounted how Smith used to feed the birds while in Osborn Prison, earning him the nickname The Birdman of Osborn.

Cartoons about Capital Punishment

More cartoons about capital punishment HERE

Alabama is trying a death penalty bait-and-switch

For a decade, Alabama death row inmate Jeffrey Lee has been clear that he does not want to be executed by lethal injection . But that is what awaits him on September 17 . He faces that prospect because the state has been enjoined from using nitrogen hypoxia , the alternative execution method he preferred, to put him to death. Having failed to show that its nitrogen hypoxia protocol is constitutionally acceptable, Alabama wants a do-over to force Lee to die by lethal injection as a result of its own failure. It should not get one. Alabama should only be able to put Lee to death if it can fix nitrogen hypoxia’s constitutional defects.

Oklahoma executes Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez

Oklahoma has carried out 1 of 3 executions set for the same day in the United States in another sign of the resurgence of the death penalty in the country. Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez was pronounced dead at 10:13 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 13, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. He was put to death by lethal injection for the murder of his common-law wife in 2003 at their Oklahoma City home. He admitted to police he shot her twice during an argument. Cuesta-Rodriguez, 70, did not fight for his life, stunning his attorneys in July when he told the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board that he didn't want clemency. "It's time for me to pay for what I did," he said.

Tennessee executes Darrell Hines

The state has spent millions of dollars over decades to execute a seriously ill man who was already incarcerated. The state of Tennessee executed death row inmate Darrell Hines Thursday morning, according to an advocacy group. No formal announcement of the execution has been issued by state leaders yet. The execution was slated for 10 a.m. Thursday at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. [DPN update] Hines was pronounced dead at 10:43 a.m. CDT. His last meal was fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, coleslaw, corn, fries, biscuits, a chicken sandwich, chocolate chip cake, and sweet tea.

The 'Black Widow' shakes Iran: 10 death sentences for a serial killer who killed 12 men

Kolthum Akbari, an Iranian woman widely dubbed the “Black Widow,” was convicted of serial murders of elderly men she married, often temporarily. Official accounts generally center on 11 murders (plus one attempted murder), though Akbari herself gave varying figures and investigations suggested she had many more marriages. The sentencing occurred primarily in September 2025 in Mazandaran Province, with ongoing reporting and updates into 2026. The 56- to 59-year-old killer confessed to killing at least 11 elderly men after temporarily or officially marrying them; Iranian authorities have linked her to additional marriages and possible further victims.

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