死刑再次成为全国关注的焦点，而美国的执行人数正在上升。上个月，死囚克丽斯塔·派克在田纳西州的一次注射死刑尝试中幸存，因该次执行过程出现失误。加州州长加文·纽森，一名民主党人，一直在考虑减刑全国规模最大的死囚犯，目前有563人被关押。而五角大楼表示，计划对前军官尼达尔·马利克·哈桑进行直播处决，他曾承认在2009年德克萨斯州福德胡德陆军基地的枪击事件中杀害了13人。特朗普总统周四表示，哈桑的处决最终不会进行直播。
Capital punishment is back in the national spotlight at a time when executions in the U.S. have been on the rise. Last month, condemned prisoner Christa Pike survived a botched execution attempt by lethal injection in Tennessee. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has contemplated commuting the nation’s largest death row, with 563 inmates. And the Pentagon said it planned to livestream the firing-squad killing of Nidal Malik Hasan, an ex-officer who admitted to killing 13 people in a 2009 shooting at Fort Hood Army base in Texas. President Trump said Thursday Hasan’s execution wouldn’t be livestreamed, after all.
这些发展正值执行人数在经历二十年下降后出现回升之际。根据非营利组织“死刑信息中心”（DPI）的数据，去年全国共进行了47次执行，这是自2009年以来的最高数字。该组织对死刑不持立场，但批评其发现的问题。佛罗里达州在这47次执行中占了19次。截至2026年目前，全国已有31人被执行死刑，其中17人在佛罗里达州。近年来，各州执行死刑的方式发生了变化。
These developments come amid a jump in executions after two decades of decline. The 47 executions nationwide last year were the most since 2009, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, or DPI, which takes no position on capital punishment but criticizes problems it identifies. Florida accounted for 19 of those 47 executions. So far in 2026, 31 people have been executed across the country, 17 of them in Florida. The way states carry out capital punishment has changed in recent years. States have used lethal injection for most executions since 1977, when capital punishment resumed after a 1972 Supreme Court ruling that halted the practice.
自1977年死刑恢复以来，各州一直主要采用注射死刑进行执行，而死刑曾因1972年最高法院的一项裁决而被暂停。但随着制药公司停止提供用于执行的药物，注射死刑变得更加复杂。各州开始转向监管松散甚至完全不受监管的药物来源，专家表示这使得注射死刑的可靠性降低。
But lethal injection became more complicated as pharmaceutical companies stopped providing drugs for executions. States have turned to loosely or even unregulated sources, which experts say make lethal injections less reliable. Along with seeking out other drug formulations, some states have turned to older methods such as firing squad and electrocution, or adopted new ones such as nitrogen gas hypoxia.
除了寻找其他药物配方，一些州还转向使用较旧的方法，如枪决和电击，或采用新方法，如氮气缺氧。
Most executions since 1977 have occurred in the South.
自1977年以来，大多数执行发生在美国南部。六个州——德克萨斯州、佛罗里达州、俄克拉荷马州、弗吉尼亚州、密苏里州和阿拉巴马州——占了这段时间内1685起执行的70%。
Six states—Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Virginia, Missouri and Alabama—account for 70% of the 1,685 executions in that span. Virginia and 10 others states have abolished the death penalty in the past 20 years, and 32 states haven’t executed anyone in at least a decade.
弗吉尼亚州和另外10个州在过去20年里废除了死刑，而32个州至少十年内没有执行过死刑。
The modern age of executions in the U.S. started some 50 years ago.
美国现代死刑时代始于大约50年前。事实上的暂停始于1967年，1972年最高法院宣告所有现行死刑法律违宪。最高法院于1976年恢复了死刑。以下是死刑执行情况的前后对比：自2000年以来，美国死刑囚犯人数下降了44%。除了某些州远离死刑之外，原因还包括辩护律师更加强大、陪审团判处死刑的案件减少，以及超过200名死刑囚犯被证明无罪，死刑信息中心执行主任罗宾·马赫尔表示。她指出，如今在一些州，年老已成为死刑囚犯死亡的主要原因。
A de facto moratorium began in 1967, and in 1972 the Supreme Court declared all existing death-penalty laws unconstitutional. The high court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. Here are executions before and after: The U.S. death row population has fallen 44% since 2000. Beyond some states’ move away from capital punishment, factors include more-robust defense counsel, fewer death sentences from juries and the exoneration of more than 200 condemned inmates, DPI Executive Director Robin Maher said. Old age, she noted, is now the main cause of death for death-row inmates in some states.
此外，处决死刑囚犯的流程变得更长、成本更高，因为上诉推高了平均执行年龄，如今接近60岁。
Also, the process to execute inmates on death row has grown longer and costlier, as appeals helped push up the average age at execution to nearly 60 years old.
根据盖洛普的调查，多数美国人表示他们支持死刑，尽管公众支持度在过去几十年里一直在下降。2025年，被调查者中有52%支持对谋杀罪犯实施死刑，这是自1972年以来的最低比例，远低于1994年的高点80%——当时美国暴力犯罪率较高。
A majority of Americans say they favor the death penalty, though public support is on a decadeslong slide, according to Gallup. In 2025, 52% of those surveyed favored the death penalty for someone convicted of murder, the lowest share since 1972 and sharply below the high-water 80% in 1994, a time of elevated violent crime in the U.S.
非党派的皮尤研究中心表示，自2019年从电话调查转为在线调查以来，他们发现对死刑的支持有所增加。其2026年的调查发现，66%的美国人支持对谋杀罪犯实施死刑。多数美国人认为死刑不会威慑人们避免犯下严重罪行，而且大多数人认为至少存在一些无辜者被处死的风险。在美国不同人群中，看法存在差异：“公众的多数人支持死刑。他们认为死刑在道德上是正当的，但他们也认为死刑可能会偏离正轨，”皮尤研究中心高级研究员J. 巴克斯特·奥利芬特说道。
The nonpartisan Pew Research Center said it has found greater support for capital punishment since it switched from telephone polling to online surveys in 2019. Its 2026 survey found 66% of Americans favor the death penalty for people convicted of murder. A majority of Americans don’t think capital punishment deters people from committing serious crimes, and most see at least some risk an innocent person could be put to death. Opinions vary across American demographics: “A majority of the public supports it. They see it as morally justified, but they do think there is some risk that it could go astray,” said J. Baxter Oliphant, a senior researcher at Pew.
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