Twenty-seven men have died by court-ordered execution so far this year in the U.S., and nine other people are scheduled to be put to death in seven states during the remainder of 2025.
Tennessee is set to kill Byron Black by lethal injection Tuesday morning. Black, 69, has a defibrillator implanted in his heart and his attorneys have argued whether the device will shock him when the lethal chemicals take effect. He was convicted of killing his girlfriend and her two children in a 1988 shooting.
Florida conducted the latest execution in the U.S., bringing the state's 2025 tally to nine. Edward Zakrzewski, who killed his wife and two children, was put to death on July 31.
Alabama, Indiana, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas and Utah also have scheduled executions for later this year.
Executions have been carried out this year in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.
The number of executions this year exceeds the 25 executions carried out last year and in 2018.
If Tennessee's execution is carried out as scheduled Tuesday, the 28 deaths will match 2015's number of executions and would also be the most since 35 people were put to death in prisons around the U.S. in 2014.
The uptick in executions can be traced to aggressive Republican governors and attorney generals pushing to get through lengthy appeals processes and get executions done, said John Blume, the director of the Cornell Death Penalty Project.
A sweeping executive order signed by President Donald Trump on his first day back in office aimed at urging prosecutors to seek the death penalty and preserving capital punishment in the states also may have fueled the increase, Blume said.
All but one execution this year has occurred in states run by Republican governors, with Arizona the exception.
Here's a look at recent executions and those scheduled for the rest of the year, by state:
Tennessee
Black is scheduled to die Tuesday by lethal injection. He was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder for the 1988 shooting deaths of his girlfriend, Angela Clay, and her two daughters in Nashville.
Black’s lawyers have said the Tennessee Department of Correction should be required to deactivate the implanted defibrillation device, which is similar to a pacemaker, in the moments before his execution.
In a back-and-forth court fight, a judge initially ruled to deactivate the device. State officials said Nashville General Hospital practitioners would do the procedure the day before at the hospital, but wouldn’t travel to the prison on execution day as the court required.
Nashville General later released a statement saying the state’s contractor didn’t reach out to proper hospital leadership and that there had been no agreement to do the work.
Black’s motion related to his heart device came within a general challenge he and other death row inmates filed against the state’s new execution protocol, which took effect this year. The trial isn’t until 2026.
Black is in a wheelchair, suffering from dementia, brain damage, kidney failure, congestive heart failure and other conditions, his attorneys have said.
Harold Nichols, 64, is also scheduled to die by lethal injection on Dec. 11. Nichols was convicted of rape and first-degree felony murder in the 1988 death of Karen Pulley in Hamilton County.
Florida
Florida has set its 10th and 11th executions of the year.
Kayle Bates is scheduled to be executed Aug. 19. He abducted a woman from an insurance office and killed her 42 years ago. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant for Aug. 28 for Curtis Windom.
Bates, 67, who is scheduled to be executed Aug. 19, was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping, armed robbery and attempted sexual battery in the June 14, 1982, Bay County killing of Janet White.
Windom, 59, shot a man over a $2,000 debt, then killed the mother of his child and the woman’s mother in February 1992 in Orlando. He is scheduled to die Aug. 28.
Alabama
An Alabama judge has postponed the execution of David Lee Roberts, who had been scheduled to be put to death by nitrogen gas on Aug. 21.
Roberts was convicted of killing Annetra Jones in 1992 while he was a houseguest at Jones’ boyfriend’s home in Marion County. Prosecutors said Roberts packed his belongings, stole money and shot Jones three times in the head while she slept on the couch. Roberts set fire to the home to hide evidence.
A Marion County judge issued a stay so Roberts can have a psychiatric evaluation to determine whether he is too mentally ill to be put to death. The execution will be on hold at least until a report from the Alabama Department of Mental Health is finished.
Geoffrey T. West, 49, is scheduled to die by nitrogen gas on Sept. 25 for the killing of convenience store clerk Margaret Parrish Berry during a 1997 robbery in Attalla.
If carried out, it would be the nation’s sixth execution by nitrogen gas, a method Alabama began using last year as an alternative to lethal injection. The method involves supplying nitrogen gas via a respirator mask to an inmate, causing the person to lose consciousness and die from a lack of oxygen.
Utah
Ralph Leroy Menzies, 67, is scheduled to die by firing squad on Sept. 5. He would become only the sixth U.S. prisoner executed by firing squad since 1977.
Menzies, who has dementia, has been on death row for 37 years for abducting and killing mother of three Maurine Hunsaker, 26, in 1986.
Judge Matthew Bates signed the death warrant a month after he ruled Menzies “consistently and rationally” understands why he is facing execution despite recent cognitive decline. Attorneys for Menzies have petitioned the court for a reassessment.
Texas
Blaine Milam, 35, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Sept. 25. Milam was convicted of killing his girlfriend’s 13-month-old daughter during what the couple had said was part of an “exorcism” in Rusk County in East Texas in 2008.
Milam’s girlfriend, Jesseca Carson, was also convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Robert Roberson is scheduled to be executed on Oct. 16.
Roberson, 58, could become the first person in the U.S. to be put to death for a murder conviction tied to shaken baby syndrome. He was convicted of the 2002 killing of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, in the East Texas city of Palestine.
Prosecutors argued he violently shook his daughter back and forth, causing severe head trauma. His lawyers and some medical experts say his daughter died not from abuse but from complications related to pneumonia.
Indiana
Indiana set a tentative execution date of Oct. 10 for Roy Lee Ward, who was convicted of raping and killing a 15-year-old girl in 2001. But that date could change.
Missouri
Lance C. Shockley is scheduled to be executed on Oct. 14, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.
Shockley was found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Dewayne Graham outside his home in Carter County in 2005.
Testimony at the trial indicated Graham was killed because he was investigating Shockley for involuntary manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident.
Ohio
Earlier this year, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine postponed five executions scheduled for 2025. All five have been delayed until 2028.
In postponing the executions, DeWine has cited the state’s inability to secure the drugs used in lethal injections due to pharmaceutical suppliers’ unwillingness.
DeWine has said that he does not anticipate any further executions will happen during his term, which runs through 2026.
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Associated Press writers Kim Chandler and Jeffrey Collins contributed.
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