Capital punishment in the United States

Who is Capital punishment in the United States?

Capital punishment in the United States is a legal sentence in 32 states, and in the federal civilian and military legal systems. Its application is limited by the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution to aggravated murders committed by mentally competent adults.

Capital punishment was a penalty for many felonies under English common law, and it was enforced in all of the American colonies prior to the Declaration of Independence. The methods of execution and the crimes subject to the death penalty vary by state and have changed over time. The most common method since 1976 has been lethal injection. Since capital punishment was reinstated in 1977, thirty-four states have performed executions.

In 2010, 39 inmates were executed in the United States and 3,108 were on death row – an execution rate of less than 2%. Many states such as Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, Ohio and Arizona regularly execute convicted murderers. Texas has performed the most executions by far, and Oklahoma has had the highest per capita execution rate.