Capital punishment
A look at the death penalty in the U.S. and where California stands.
On Sept. 30, a failed execution attempt of convicted murderer Christa Pike occurred in Tennessee. Tennessee is one of 24 states that carry out executions. Pike was still alive after two doses of lethal injection drugs.
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This week the Pentagon said President Donald Trump has approved a recommendation by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to have convicted Fort Hood mass killer Nidal Hasan executed by a U.S. Army firing squad.
California is one of four states that has a death penalty but paused executions. The others are Oregon, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
California has more people sentenced to death than Florida, Texas and Alabama combined.
Here’s how many states carry out executions and how many inmates are sentenced to death in America.
Most executions by state
Since 1976, only top 20 listed (so far In 2026)
- Texas 602 (6)
- Florida 141 (16)
- Oklahoma 132 (3)
- Virginia 113
- Missouri 102
- Alabama 85 (2)
- Georgia 77
- Ohio 56
- South Carolina 50
- Arizona 43 (1)
- North Carolina 43
- Arkansas 31
- Louisiana 29
- Mississippi 25
- Indiana 23
- Tennessee 17 (1)
- Delaware 16
- Federal 16
- California 13
- Illinois 12
Total executions in U.S. since 1976: 1,683
California’s death sentence inmates
In 2024, California dismantled what was Death Row and merged its condemned inmates into the general prison population.
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In 2024, the Condemned Inmate Transfer Program was completed and the state transferred all 582 men out of San Quentin’s death row to 24 prisons throughout the state. Nine remain at San Quentin in the Psychiatric facility. The 18 death-sentenced women who were formerly on the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla’s death row have been transferred to the general population.
In 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom said “I will not oversee the execution of any person while Governor… Our death penalty system has been, by all measures, a failure.”
A Gallup Poll in November 2024 found that support for the death penalty in the U.S. is at 53%, the lowest ever. Gallup attributes the decrease to the fact that younger people — those born after 1980 — are less likely to support capital punishment than older Americans.
California’s death row inmates were transferred to institutions with at least a Level II security level and a lethal electrified fence. They are designated as “Close Custody” for a minimum of five years, providing the highest security level while still allowing integration into the general population.
Sources: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, State of California, Death Penalty Information Center, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc.
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