Tennessee contributes to national uptick in executions
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Tennessee is contributing to a national surge in executions, and the Republican candidate for governor wants the state to go further in the coming years.
The big picture: Forty-seven people were executed in the United States last year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
- Three of them were in Tennessee.
The latest: Christa Pike, the only woman on Tennessee's death row, is set to be put to death this week. It would mark the state's second completed execution in 2026.
- Another execution is set to take place in December.
What she's saying: U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the frontrunner to become the next governor, has said she would like to see Tennessee move more quickly.
- "As governor, I would work to bring back the electric chair, and as soon as a criminal sentenced to death has exhausted all of his/her appeals, I believe in flipping the switch," Blackburn said in a statement to the Tennessee Lookout.
- "That's the only way to closure for victims' families."
Zoom in: Inmates in Tennessee tend to spend longer on death row compared to other states.
- The three Tennessee inmates executed last year averaged more than 35 years on death row, compared with the 27-year national average.
- Today, 40% of Tennessee's death-row prisoners have been under a death sentence for at least 30 years, according to an Axios analysis of state prison data.
Between the lines: Blackburn's interest in speeding up that timeline comes as the Trump administration has overtly cheered on the death penalty.
- "The increased number of executions last year reflected the enthusiasm and the urging of this administration to increase use of the death penalty, and the acquiescence of some state officials to that political pressure," DPIC executive director Robin Maher tells Axios.
Yes, but: The Nashville Banner noted that Blackburn would need buy-in from state lawmakers to make material changes to the execution process, and those would likely spur legal challenges.
Reality check: Even with the national uptick, DPI's data doesn't point to a massive wave of executions. Fewer than 25 people were sentenced to death in 2025 per DPI's tracker, compared to numbers well into the 100s in the 2000s.
- "The majority of capital juries are imposing life sentences, not death sentences," Maher says, adding she's doubtful the country will ever return to the peak numbers.