<P> Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the United States, currently used by 31 states, the federal government, and the military . Its existence can be traced to the beginning of the American colonies . The United States is the only Western country currently applying the death penalty, one of 54 countries worldwide applying it, and was the first to develop lethal injection as a method of execution, which has since been adopted by five other countries . </P> <P> There were no executions in the United States between 1967 and 1977 . In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down capital punishment statutes in Furman v. Georgia, reducing all death sentences pending at the time to life imprisonment . </P>

When did the united states start the death penalty