The death penalty was carried out once again this Friday in the United States. This was the 43rd time in 2025 alone, and the third by firing squad.

A man sentenced to death for a murder committed in 2004 was executed by firing squad on Friday, November 14, 2025 in South Carolina, in the southeastern United States.

Stephen Bryant, 44, had killed three men in the space of five days. He had left a defiant message written in the blood of his last victim, Willard Tietjen, at the crime scene: "Catch me if you can."

This is the 43rd execution in the United States in 2025, the highest number since the 43 recorded in 2012. Three more are scheduled before the end of the year.

Different modes of execution

The vast majority of executions are carried out by lethal injection, with 35 to date in 2025 in the country.

A man sentenced to death for a murder committed in 2004 was executed by firing squad on Friday, November 14, 2025 in South Carolina, in the southeastern United States.

Stephen Bryant, 44, had killed three men in the space of five days. He had left a defiant message written in the blood of his last victim, Willard Tietjen, at the crime scene: "Catch me if you can."

This is the 43rd execution in the United States in 2025, the highest number since the 43 recorded in 2012. Three more are scheduled before the end of the year.

Different modes of execution

The vast majority of executions are carried out by lethal injection, with 35 to date in 2025 in the country.

Five others 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 three 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 US states. Three others, California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania, observe a moratorium on executions by order of the governor.