It’s been 16 years since three people were executed on the same day in the US, but on Thursday, three men convicted of murder in different US states will face the death penalty.

The planned executions of inmates Anthony Darrell Hines, 66, Jeremy Williams, 41, and Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez, 71, in Tennessee, Alabama and Oklahoma, respectively, are indicative of a steep rise in executions across the US.

Last year, in 2025, there were more than four times as many people put to death as there were in 2021, even as juries, and the American public at large, became increasingly wary of its use.

So what’s driving the increase and are the US public in step with the trend?

The Trump factor

President Donald Trump has long been a major supporter of the death penalty, describing capital punishment 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, during his first term, he ended a nearly two-decade moratorium on the federal death penalty, by ordering 13 executions over a six-month period.

While the moratorium returned under President Biden, on the first day of Trump’s second term in 2025, he signed an executive order that re-instated the death penalty. No federal executions have been carried out since he signed it, however. In the US, both the federal government and local states authorities can order executions.

Under Trump’s administration, the Department of Justice has also expanded protocols to include additional manners of execution, such as by firing squad, and readopted lethal injections. The agency said in April that it has also streamlined internal processes to expedite death penalty cases.

Trump’s executive order also encouraged states to seek the death penalty for every federal crime when a law enforcement officer is killed, and instructed the attorney general to ensure that states have an ample supply of drugs for lethal injections, facilitating the states’ ability to carry out capital punishment.

But his true impact won’t be known for several years, said Justin Mazzola, deputy director for research at Amnesty International USA, which opposes the death penalty.

“Because of the length it takes for the actual case to happen, and then also all the appeals that are built in once there is a conviction,” he said.

Florida leads the charge

There were a total of 47 executions across 11 states in 2025, a marked increase from the 25 executions carried out in 2024.

But about 40% of the deaths were in one state, Florida, making the Sunshine State the biggest factor contributing to the US’s rise in executions. Just over halfway into 2026, 12 of the 19 executions occurred in Florida.

That, experts say, is because of one man: Republican 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). The organisation provides statistics and research on the death penalty but does not take a stance on it morally.

DeSantis has been behind changes to laws that make it easier to carry out executions.

In 2023, Florida lowered the legal threshold for capital punishment by reducing the number of jurors required to recommend the death penalty in the trial phase of court cases, from a unanimous 12 to eight jurors.

Meanwhile, the crime of sexual battery on a minor under 12 years old has become eligible as a capital offence.

DeSantis has championed the death penalty as a “strong deterrent” for crime and “an appropriate punishment for the worst offenders”.

Because individual states have the power to prosecute crimes and order executions, much of the power lies with state governors. Florida is uniquely positioned because its governor has the singular ability to sign a death warrant for prisoners who have no more appeals – without oversight from the courts. Pennsylvania has a similar process, but has not carried out an execution since 1999.

‘Their punishment is, frankly, earned’

The US is one of the few western countries that still has the death penalty, which has been largely phased out in Europe and is beginning to wane in Africa.

In the US, 27 of the 50 states have the death penalty under state law. Four of them – California, Ohio, Oregon and Pennsylvania – have paused executions through executive actions, as issues of botched executions, discrimination and cost have come to the forefront.

But many still support it. Florida’s top prosecutor James Uthmeier has staunchly pursued the death penalty in high-profile murder cases, endorsing “the ultimate form of punishment” for “depraved” criminals.

“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,” Florida State Attorney William Sheiner said in a recent interview with Central Florida Public Media.

“Just because I pursue death as an option doesn’t mean that that’s going to be the sentence. It’s basically me saying to the community: this is up to you guys to decide if death is appropriate.”

Uthmeier and Sheiner’s offices did not immediately respond to the BBC’s request for comment.

A spotlight on executions

How prisoners are executed has become just as much of a point of debate as whether they should be. Pharmaceutical companies have opposed the use of their products for the death penalty, leading to shortages of the drugs necessary for lethal injections. In 2025, facing a shortage, South Carolina began executing inmates via firing squad.

Meanwhile, a number of botched executions have raised alarm. An estimated 3% of US executions rom 1890 to 2010 were botched, according to DPI, with lethal injection having the highest rate of botched executions. In 2022, more than a third of executions in the US were botched or highly problematic, the organisation said.

In May, Tennessee officials tried and failed to give Tony Von Carruthers, who had been on death row for decades, a lethal injection for over an hour. Blood streamed down his chest, and he repeatedly groaned and told prison staff he was in pain, according to witness statements.

Governor Bill Lee, who granted Carruthers a one-year reprieve after the failed execution, has said that Carruthers’ execution was not botched. He has instead said that the doctor simply could not establish IV access.

But it remains to be seen if the execution of the three men on Thursday will go forward – or whether there will be a last minute reprieve.

Anthony Darrell Hines, 66, who has maintained his innocence for four years and is bedridden, is scheduled to be executed in Tennessee on Thursday under the same protocol that failed twelve weeks ago with Carruthers.

In Alabama, Jeremy Williams, convicted for the rape and murder of a 5-year-old girl in 2021, could be the southern state’s first execution of 2026. Williams, who has dismissed his attorneys and has volunteered to be put to death, is slated to die by lethal injection and Alabama Governor Kay Ivey has said she does not plan to grant clemency.

In Oklahoma, septuagenarian Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez has asked for no clemency and no mercy for the murder of a woman in 2003. He is also slated to die by lethal injection on Thursday, but his age, experts say, heightens his risk for a botched execution.

Thursday’s planned executions are occurring amid a steady decline of support for the death penalty.

“It’s the opposite of a cheap easy political fix,” said Maya Foa, CEO of Reprieve US, an international legal organisation opposed to the death penalty.

Just 52% of Americans say the death penalty is morally acceptable, the lowest number since the 1970s, a Gallup poll shows. Although over half of Americans are in favour, the decline shows shifting trends, Maher said.

And that weakening support is also reflected in the decline in the number of death sentences that are issued by juries. In the 1990s, juries across the country would issue upwards of 300 death sentences in a year. In 2025, they issued only 23.

“That tells us something very important: These are regular citizens that are sitting in judgment of people who are accused of committing the worst possible crimes, and then deciding what sentence fits those crimes,” Maher said. “Those juries are increasingly saying that a death sentence is not the right answer.” (BBC)

•US inmates Anthony Darrell Hines, 66, Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez, 71, and Jeremy Williams, 41, are scheduled to be executed on Thursday

Update news