<P> Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the United States, currently used by 30 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 . It is 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 . The Philippines has since abolished executions, and Guatemala has done so for civil offences, leaving the USA one of 4 countries to use this method, along with China, Thailand, and Vietnam . </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 was the death penalty abolished in usa
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