America is seeing an uptick in executions

Data: Death Penalty Information Center ; Chart: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals Florida executed its 14th prisoner for the year on Tuesday, adding to a post-COVID surge in capital punishment that drove more executions last year than any since 2009.

The big picture: Even as fewer courts sentence defendants to death and more than half of the states have banned or at least temporarily halted the practice, the Trump administration has overtly cheered on the death penalty.

"The increased number of executions last year reflected the enthusiasm and the urging of this administration to increase use of the death penalty, and the acquiescence of some state officials to that political pressure," Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Robin Maher tells Axios.

By the numbers: Forty-seven people were executed last year, 19 of whom were in Florida, according to the DPI's database dating back to 1977.

2026 is falling behind that pace.

Twenty-four people have been executed this year, with ten more scheduled.

Zoom in: Florida has led the way with executions, including two men being put to death within hours of one another back in July.

It was the first time the state had done so in more than six decades.

Florida Gov.

Ron DeSantis has signed death warrants at a rapid pace, setting off the spree at a level unseen in decades.

"I think we'll probably end up having done more [executions] than any administration in the history of the state of Florida," he said in July, adding, "I'm not like taking any pride in that, because it's a weighty thing." Catch up quick: While there has not been a federal execution since 2021, President Trump signed a day-one executive order instructing his attorney general to pursue the death penalty and ensure states have a sufficient supply of drugs for lethal injections.

His approach was a sharp departure from the Biden administration, which imposed a moratorium on federal capital punishment amid a DOJ review and commuted the sentences for 37 of the 40 people on federal death row.

Trump, on the other hand, oversaw a historic use of capital punishment in his first term, with 13 executions in roughly six months.

Currently, only three people are on federal death row, none of whom have exhausted their appeals, Maher explains.