In a pivotal turn of events for the United States in 2023, Texas and Florida emerged as the frontrunners in the execution of death penalty sentences, signaling a notable surge compared to the preceding year.
The Death Penalty Information Center’s year-end report, released on Sunday, December 25, 2023, revealed that the nationwide executions rose from 18 in 2022 to 24 in 2023.
A striking revelation from the report unveiled that Texas and Florida jointly accounted for more than half of these executions, with Texas executing eight individuals and Florida putting six to death.
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This upswing in capital punishment aligns with the recent implementation of groundbreaking legislation in Florida. The state abolished the unanimity requirement for jurors in death penalty cases, enabling the imposition of a death sentence with approval from just eight of the 12 jurors. This legislative shift followed the closely watched case of Nikolas Cruz, the Parkland school shooter, who narrowly escaped a death sentence due to a dissenting juror.
The broader trend highlighted in the report indicates that 2023 marked the ninth consecutive year with fewer than 30 executions and fewer than 50 death sentences imposed—a significant decline in comparison to the past two decades.
Seven states, including Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Texas, issued death sentences in 2023. The federal government also made headlines by issuing its first death sentence since 2019, following the conviction of Robert Bowers, the Tree of Life synagogue shooter. In contrast, the federal capital trial of Sayfullo Saipov, responsible for a terror attack in New York City, resulted in a life sentence.
The report delved into shifting public perceptions regarding the fairness of capital punishment. According to the annual Gallup Crime Survey cited in the DPIC report, a historic low is observed, with more Americans now perceiving the death penalty as applied unfairly (50%) rather than fairly (47%). This reflects a decline from the 51%–61% range recorded between 2000 and 2015.
Furthermore, the DPIC report emphasized that a significant number of individuals executed in 2023 had “significant vulnerabilities” and likely would not have received a death sentence under current legal standards and societal understanding of mental illness and trauma. Nearly 80% of those executed had impairments such as serious mental illness, brain injury, developmental brain damage, or experiences of chronic childhood trauma, neglect, and abuse.
Racial disparities in the use of capital punishment were also brought to light. The report noted that prisoners of color were overrepresented among those executed, with cases involving white victims being more likely to result in execution. Of the 24 prisoners executed, nine were people of color, while 79% of the crimes for which defendants were executed involved white victims.
The DPIC report concluded by highlighting that a majority of states, totaling 29, have either abolished the death penalty or temporarily halted executions through executive action, indicative of a nationwide reevaluation of capital punishment policies.
