The Death Penalty Is Legal in Nearly 30 States. How Many Executions Have Occurred?

South Carolina on March 7 carried out the first U.S. execution by firing squad in 15 years.

Three volunteer prison employees using rifles fatally shot Brad Sigmon – convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend’s parents with a baseball bat in 2001 – from behind a barrier with openings about 15 feet away. Only three other defendants had been executed by firing squad in the country since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

Sigmon’s execution was the sixth in the U.S. so far in 2025. Overall, there have been more than 1,600 executions in the U.S. over the last five decades.

Which States Have the Death Penalty?

South Carolina is one of 27 U.S. states that have the death penalty, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit that provides data and analysis on issues concerning capital punishment and the people it affects.

Most death penalty states are located in the South and West, though some – California, Ohio, Oregon and Pennsylvania – have put a pause on executions.