A Statistical and Legal Divergence
On Thursday, August 13, 2026, the United States is set to execute three men in Tennessee, Alabama, and Oklahoma—Anthony Darrell Hines, Jeremy Williams, and Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez. This marks the first time in 16 years that three individuals have been put to death in the US on the same day, underscoring a sharp upward trajectory in capital punishment that stands in stark contrast to global developments.
While the US sees a surge in executions—rising to 47 in 2025 from 25 in 2024—Lebanon has moved in the opposite direction. On Tuesday, the Lebanese parliament voted to abolish the death penalty, replacing all existing death sentences with life imprisonment and hard labor. This landmark decision makes Lebanon the first country in the Middle East to formally end capital punishment, effectively transforming a long-standing de facto moratorium into a permanent legal protection.
The US Trend: Policy and Politics
The rise in US executions is largely driven by state-level policies and renewed executive focus. Florida, led by Governor Ron DeSantis, remains a primary outlier, accounting for a significant portion of the national increase. Legal changes in the state, such as lowering the jury requirement for death sentences from a unanimous 12 to eight, have facilitated this rise. Nationally, the Department of Justice under the current administration has streamlined processes and expanded execution protocols, including the re-adoption of lethal injections and the potential use of firing squads.
However, public support remains complex. Gallup polling indicates that only 52% of Americans view the death penalty as morally acceptable, the lowest level since the 1970s. This sentiment is echoed in courtrooms, where juries issued only 23 death sentences in 2025, a dramatic decline from the hundreds issued annually in the 1990s.
The Middle Eastern Shift
Lebanon’s move, while historic for the region, follows two decades of unofficial suspension of executions. The Lebanese Ministry of Justice reported that 85 people were facing death sentences at the end of 2025. By shifting these to life imprisonment, the parliament has brought the nation into alignment with the global trend of abolition, which now includes 113 countries for all crimes and 23 countries that have abolished it in practice.
The contrast remains stark when compared to neighboring states. Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Egypt continue to maintain some of the highest per-capita execution rates globally. In 2025, global execution figures saw an uptick largely due to a surge in Iran, highlighting the persistent divide between nations moving toward legal reform and those maintaining capital punishment as a state instrument.