Under the Trump Administration, for the first time in United States history, the federal government has executed more American civilians than all the states combined, over the course of a year.

Despite the decline in the practice of the death penalty, the Trump Administration formally executed 10 prisoners in 2020, which was in stark contrast to all historical norms.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), there has been a steady pattern of declining executions, which was expected to continue at the state-level in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, with only five states - namely Alabama, Georgia, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas - carrying out judicial killings.

States as a whole contributed to seven judicial executions, which amounted to the lowest executions in the United States since 1991.

In contrast to this declining practice, the Trump Administration is an aberration, with Robert Dunham, the Executive Director of the DPIC, stating that "The administration’s policies were not just out of step with the historical practices of previous presidents, they were also completely out of step with today’s state practices".

The coronavirus pandemic, and the Trump Administration's catastrophic mismanagement of the ensuing public health crisis, led to an eruption of cases at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute (Indiana), in which the DPIC report highlighted that at least nine members of the execution teams were infected.

Since President Trump lost the election in November, the federal government has meted out three judicial executions, all of whom were black men; a reflection of the racial disparities and structural issues in the American criminal-justice system.