The death penalty remains one of the most hotly debated topics in the US, and new figures show which state has carried out executions at the highest rate — a state that already has ten planned for next year.
Many countries have stepped back from capital punishment over time, but in the United States it still exists in a significant number of places, and is used more frequently in some states than others.
At present, 27 of the 50 states retain the death penalty, though that number — and how often it is used — has shifted over the decades.
Texas is routinely labelled the nation’s execution hub because of its overall totals, but it does not lead when executions are measured by population.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the highest execution rate from 1976 to 2024 belongs to Oklahoma.
Over that stretch, Oklahoma has carried out 127 executions, which works out to around three executions per 100,000 residents.
What’s more, every one of the ten executions currently scheduled for 2027 is set to take place in Oklahoma.
Executions were halted nationwide between 1972 and 1976 after the US Supreme Court found that existing death penalty statutes were being used in an arbitrary and unequal way.
Even after states rewrote their laws and capital punishment returned in 1976, the system continued to face scrutiny, including cases in which people were sentenced to death and later found not to have committed the crimes.
One of the most widely disputed cases is the 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham.
Willingham was put to death in Texas after being convicted of setting a fire that killed his three young daughters.
However, in the years following his execution, reviews of the fire investigation concluded that the forensic approach used at trial relied on deeply outdated assumptions, and that the blaze was likely accidental.
The first person currently listed for execution in 2027 in Oklahoma is Keith LaMar, who has spent three decades on death row in Ohio.
Writing for Carlmont High School’s student blog, he said: “I was a drug dealer when I was 17 years old, and was robbed several times, so I started carrying a gun.
“Once, a group of guys was trying to rob me. I ended up exchanging gunfire with them, and unfortunately, sadly, took someone’s life, and was myself shot twice in the legs.”
LaMar admitted guilt in a 1989 murder case, but later received a death sentence in 1995 tied to allegations that he played a part in the deaths of five inmates during the 1993 uprising at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility.
The disturbance lasted 11 days and left 10 people dead, though LaMar has consistently said he was not responsible for the killings.
He argues that he was not involved and that the testimony used to implicate him was unreliable.