Twenty-four people have been put to death so far in 2023, up from 18 in 2022 and 11 in 2021, according to a new report by the Death Penalty Information Center. The center attributed the increase to Florida's return to executions after a 3-year pause. Pat Sullivan/AP hide caption
A former Virginia Department of Corrections employee donated hundreds of execution documents, including these photographs, to the Library of Virginia more than a decade ago. NPR is now exclusively publishing a selection of the documents. Library of Virginia, Chiara Eisner and Monika Evstatieva/NPR hide caption
Richard Moore, scheduled for execution later this month, has chosen to die by firing squad rather than in the electric chair. South Carolina Dept. of Corrections via AP hide caption
The gurney in the the execution chamber at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Okla., shown in 2014. Two Oklahoma death row inmates facing executions in the coming months offered firing squad as a less problematic alternative to the state's three-drug lethal injection, one of their attorneys told a federal judge on Monday. Sue Ogrocki/AP hide caption
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has signed into law a bill that forces death row inmates to choose between the electric chair and a firing squad if lethal injection drugs aren't available. Kinard Lisbon/South Carolina Department of Corrections via AP hide caption
Willie B. Smith is on death row for his conviction in the 1991 abduction, robbery, and murder of 22-year-old Sharma Ruth Johnson. Alabama Department of Corrections hide caption
The entrance to the U.S. Penitentiary Terre Haute, Ind., is seen Wednesday. Wesley Purkey, convicted of the 1998 kidnapping and killing of a 16-year-old girl, was executed there Thursday morning. Michael Conroy/AP hide caption
This undated photo from the Alabama Department of Corrections shows Nathaniel Woods. Woods was executed late Thursday in Alabama. AP hide caption
Gov. Gavin Newsom will sign an order on Wednesday imposing a moratorium on California's death penalty. Rich Pedroncelli/AP hide caption
This file photo shows Alabama's lethal injection chamber at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Ala. Inmate Domineque Ray was put to death Thursday night without his spiritual adviser present in the chamber. DAVE MARTIN/AP hide caption
This photo combo shows death row immates, from left, Thomas Whitaker from Texas, whose sentence was commuted Thursday, Doyle Lee Hamm from Alabama, and Eric Scott Branch from Florida. AP hide caption
Arkansas death-row inmate Kenneth Williams is scheduled to be executed on Thursday. AP hide caption
This combination of undated file photos provided by the Arkansas Department of Correction shows death-row inmates Jack Jones Jr., left, and Marcel Williams. The two Arkansas inmates were put to death Monday, in the nation's first double execution in more than 16 years. AP hide caption
A ruling from the state Supreme Court allowing officials to use a lethal injection drug that a supplier says was misleadingly obtained cleared the way for Arkansas to execute Ledell Lee late Thursday. AP hide caption
This combination of undated photos provided by the Arkansas Department of Correction shows the death row inmates in question. Top row (from left): Jack Harold Jones Jr., Marcel Williams, Stacey E. Johnson, Ledell Lee. Bottom row (from left): Jason F. McGehee, Kenneth Williams, Don Davis and Bruce Earl Ward. McGehee's execution was blocked by federal judge last week. Arkansas Department of Correction via AP hide caption
Alabama's lethal injection chamber in 2002 at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Ala. Dave Martin/AP hide caption
Lawyers for the family of Nie Shubin, who was executed by firing squad in 1995 for rape and murder, leave court in December 2014. China's Supreme Court exonerated Nie on Dec. 2, following years of effort by his family to clear his name. Fred Dufour/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
An Iraqi man prays in 2015 for his slain relative, at the site of a mass grave, believed to contain the bodies of Iraqi soldiers killed by Islamic State group militants when they overran Camp Speicher military base, in Tikrit, Iraq. Khalid Mohammed/AP hide caption
Family members of Shafqat Hussain, who was convicted and hanged in Pakistan in August for killing a boy in 2004, waited to receive his body outside the central jail in Karachi. Pakistan executed more than 300 people last year. Fareed Khan/AP hide caption
This undated file photo provided by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections shows death row inmate Richard Glossip. AP hide caption
People gather opposite Downing Street during a protest against the execution of a young woman in Iran, in October of last year. Amnesty International says that Iran has undergone an "unprecedented spike" in executions in recent months. Graham Mitchell/Barcroft Media/Landov hide caption