This is a list of people executed in the United States in 2021. A total of eleven people, ten male and one female, were
executed in the
United States in 2021, all by
lethal injection.[1] With only eleven executions occurring throughout the year, 2021 saw the fewest number of executions within a single year since 1988.[2]
List of people executed in the United States in 2021
A number of executions were canceled in 2021. Two executions in
Tennessee were stayed indefinitely because of the
COVID-19 pandemic.[14][15] Three executions in
Texas were also stayed to review intellectual disability claims.[16][17][18] Five more executions in Texas were reprieved due to the state not allowing the inmate's pastors to lay their hands on them during the execution.[19][20][21][22] Three executions in
Ohio were reprieved due to the unofficial
moratorium in place on
capital punishment in Ohio by Governor
Mike DeWine, due to problems in securing the drugs needed for lethal injections.[23] All three of these executions were rescheduled for 2024.[24][25] An execution in
Pennsylvania was also reprieved due to the moratorium in place on
capital punishment in Pennsylvania by Governor
Tom Wolf. An execution in
Idaho was stayed by the Idaho Commission of Pardons and Parole after they granted a request for a commutation hearing. Attorneys from both sides agreed to the stay of execution until the hearing concluded in November 2021.[26]
Two executions in
South Carolina were stayed by the
South Carolina Supreme Court because the state did not have a way of carrying out
execution by firing squad. The new capital punishment law in the state requires inmates to pick between the electric chair or firing squad. South Carolina currently has no way of executing inmates via firing squad, meaning the inmates had no choice but to be executed via electrocution. The court ruled the inmates must have the choice available to them before they can be executed.[27][28] The execution of
Zane Floyd in
Nevada was stayed by a federal judge, who ruled that the state needed more time to determine the constitutionality of the lethal injection drugs that would be used for his execution.[29][30] The execution of
Julius Jones in
Oklahoma was halted hours before he was due to be executed after his death sentence was commuted to life without the possibility of parole by Governor
Kevin Stitt.[31]