<P> Subsequently, a majority of states passed new death penalty statutes, and the court affirmed the legality of capital punishment in the 1976 case Gregg v. Georgia . Since then, more than 7,800 defendants have been sentenced to death; of these, more than 1,400 have been executed, 161 who were sentenced to death before and after 1976 were exonerated of their conviction before their execution in the modern era. and more than 2,900 are still on death row . </P> <P> The first recorded death sentence in the British North American colonies was carried out in 1608 on Captain George Kendall, who was executed by firing squad at the Jamestown colony for allegedly spying for the Spanish government . </P> <P> The Bill of Rights adopted in 1789 included the Eighth Amendment which prohibited cruel and unusual punishment . The Fifth Amendment was drafted with language implying a possible use of the death penalty, requiring a grand jury indictment for "capital crime" and a due process of law for deprivation of "life" by the government . The Fourteenth Amendment adopted in 1868 also requires a due process of law for deprivation of life by any state . </P> <P> The Espy file, compiled by M. Watt Espy and John Ortiz Smykla, lists 15,269 people executed in the United States and its predecessor colonies between 1608 and 1991 . From 1930 to 2002, there were 4,661 executions in the U.S., about two - thirds of them in the first 20 years . Additionally, the United States Army executed 135 soldiers between 1916 and 1955 (the most recent). </P>

When did the us start using the death penalty
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