Two men sentenced to death, one in Florida and the other in Missouri, were executed on Tuesday. In total, the United States has carried out 37 executions since the beginning of 2025, the highest number since 2013.

Two men sentenced to death for murder were executed Tuesday in the United States, in Florida and Missouri.

These two executions, carried out by lethal injection, bring to 37 the total number of executions carried out in the United States since the beginning of the year, the highest level since the 39 recorded in 2013.

Two more are planned this week, in Mississippi (south) on Wednesday and in Arizona (southwest) on Friday, out of a total of eight scheduled until December 31.

Two men sentenced to death for murder were executed Tuesday in the United States, in Florida and Missouri.

These two executions, carried out by lethal injection, bring to 37 the total number of executions carried out in the United States since the beginning of the year, the highest level since the 39 recorded in 2013.

Two more are planned this week, in Mississippi (south) on Wednesday and in Arizona (southwest) on Friday, out of a total of eight scheduled until December 31.

Read also: Why are these American prisoners waiting so long on “death row”?

No unanimous verdict for one of the two convicts

In Florida (southeast), Samuel Smithers, 72, was executed for the 1996 murder of two prostitutes, Christy Cowan and Denise Roach, whom he had beaten and strangled. The bodies of the two women were found in a pond on a property where he was doing gardening work.

In central Missouri, Lance Shockley, 48, was executed this evening for the 2005 murder of police officer Carl Graham, of whom he has always maintained his innocence. The officer, who was investigating a fatal car accident caused by the defendant the previous year, was found shot to death outside his home.

Lance Shockley was sentenced to death despite the lack of material evidence, according to the defense, and even though the jury did not reach a unanimous verdict on the sentence. Missouri is one of the few states where the death penalty can be imposed without a unanimous jury.

23 states have abolished the death penalty

The vast majority of executions in the United States since the beginning of the year, 37 in total, have been carried out by lethal injection.

Four were executed by nitrogen inhalation, a method used for the first time in the world by Alabama (south) in 2024 and compared by UN experts to a form of "torture", and two by firing squad in South Carolina, for the first time in the United States since 2010.

The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 U.S. states. Three others—California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania—observe a moratorium on executions by governor's decision.