The nation’s death penalty watchdog group released its annual report Thursday, showing Alabama led the country in executions in 2024.

It’s the first time Alabama has executed more people than any other state.

The Death Penalty Information Center, a national nonprofit who provides data and analysis on capital punishment, released its year-end report and showed that while nine states carried out executions in 2024, just four states made up three-fourths of the total 25 executions.

Those four states included Alabama. The Yellowhammer state executed six people in 2024: Kenneth Smith, Jamie Mills, Keith Gavin, Alan Miller, Derrick Dearman, and Carey Grayson. Smith, Miller, and Grayson were put to death using nitrogen gas.

The other three leaders were Missouri (4), Oklahoma (4), and Texas (5). The others were South Carolina two executions with one each in Georgia, Utah, Florida and Indiana.

Smith was the first inmate to be executed using the new method in the United States. The method was approved by the Alabama Legislature years ago, and inmates had a chance to request to change their method of execution to gas in June 2018 instead of the default method of lethal injection. Smith elected to make that change.

That execution, which happened on the evening of Jan. 25, set off calls from around the world to discontinue use of nitrogen executions after the 58-year-old writhed and thrashed on the gurney for several minutes.

In her dissent in the Smith case, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, “Having failed to kill Smith on its first attempt, Alabama has select­ed him as its ​‘guinea pig’ to test a method of execution never attempted before. The world is watching… With deep sadness, but commitment to the Eighth Amendment’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment, I respectfully dissent.”

But the calls didn’t help. In September, Miller, who killed three men in a string of workplace shootings in 1999, was executed with nitrogen pumped through a gas mask, just like Smith. Miller had no pending appeals at the time of his death and had entered into a confidential settlement with the state weeks prior.

Miller struggled against his restraints for about two minutes, shaking and trembling. The shaking was similar to what was seen at Smith’s execution, but was not as long nor violent.

Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said after Miller died that those movements weren’t surprising.

“There’s going to be involuntary body movements as the body is depleted of oxygen, so that was nothing we did not expect,” Hamm said.

Officials from the Alabama Attorney General’s Office have argued that Smith’s execution was prolonged because he held his breath, delaying the nitrogen entering his body.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center’s report, public support for the death penalty remains at 53%, a 50-year low. This year was the 10th consecutive year with fewer than 30 executions, according to the report.

The report also notes lawmakers and elected prosecutors from both sides of the aisle who publicly supported prisoners with innocence claims, including Richard Glossip in Oklahoma, Marcellus Williams in Missouri, and Robert Roberson in Texas.

“In 2024, we saw people with credible evidence of innocence set for execution, followed by extraordinary levels of public frustration and outrage,” said Robin Maher, Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center.

“Several high-profile cases fueled new concerns about whether the death penalty can be used fairly and accurately. A new poll also predicts a steady decline of support in the future, showing for the first time that a majority of adults aged 18 to 43 now oppose the death penalty.”

The report shows 26 people were sentenced to death in America this year, including four in Alabama. Three of the four were imposed by non-unanimous juries.

Alabama and Florida are the only two states where non-unanimous juries can impose a death sentence: eight out of 12 are needed in Florida, while 10 out of 12 are needed in Alabama.

Six of those 26 death sentences in 2024 were imposed in Florida.

Yet, the courts are not taking up more death-penalty cases. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review 114 of 117, or 97%, of appeals from death-sentenced prisoners in 2024, according to the nonprofit report.

Read the full report here.