Rise in US executions masks deep divide between states on use of death penalty

A protester rallies against the death penalty across from the federal execution chamber in Terre Haute, Indiana, on 10 December 2020. Photograph: Austen Leake/AP

The execution of Brian Dorsey in Missouri on Tuesday, despite an extraordinary campaign asking for his sentence to be commuted, brought into focus the issue of the death penalty in the US – one of the few countries in the western world that still uses corporal punishment.

Dorsey, 52, was executed for the 2006 murders of his cousin and her husband, after the number of people executed in the US rose to 24 in 2023, from 18 in 2022.