News Nation – Global executions hit 44-year high in 2025: Amnesty International
Executions across the globe last year rose to the highest levels recorded by Amnesty International since 1981, according to the human rights organization.
Amnesty documented 2,707 people being executed across 17 countries in 2025.
“The staggering rise recorded in the report Death Sentences and Executions 2025, was down to a handful of governments determined to rule by fear. Iranian authorities, the main drivers behind the spike, executed at least 2,159 people, more than double its 2024 figure,” according to the organization.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency reported this month, “Executions of prisoners on political and security-related charges have increased alongside the outbreak of military conflict in Iran.”
Sources who have spoken with NewsNation say the number of deaths during the January protests is closer to 30,000, but an exact number is difficult to reach.
Executions in the US
In 2025, 47 people, all of them male, were executed in the United States, the highest number in 16 years.
On his first day back in office, President Donald Trump signed a sweeping executive order on the death penalty that directs the attorney general to “take all necessary and lawful action” to ensure that states have enough lethal injection drugs to carry out executions.
Federal executions had been on hold since a moratorium was imposed by former Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2021.
Trump’s administration carried out 13 federal executions during his first term, more than under any president in modern history, and the president has spoken frequently of expanding executions. In a speech announcing his 2024 campaign, Trump called for those “caught selling drugs to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts.”
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