This year, US government executes the most people in more than a century

The federal government has executed 10 people so far this year. It’s the most since 1896 and more than all 50 states combined. The pandemic played a part in that state-level slowdown of capital punishment. But this wave of federal executions is unprecedented in the modern era. Three more death sentences are scheduled to happen before President Trump leaves office next month.

“This is the first year that we're seeing in modern history that the number of federal executions is outnumbering executions in all the other states combined,” says Ngozi Ndulue, Senior Director of Research and Special Projects at the Death Penalty Information Center.