ivern (1997), executions declined in the United States from a peak of 199 in 1935 to 56 in 1960 (p. 329). Then after the mid-1970s, they increased again to nearly 400 between 1976 and mid-1997 (Death and, 1997, June 21, p. 32). Capital punishment is barred by law in only 12 states, the District of Columbia and four territories (Kaplan, 1997, June 16, p. 29).
There can be little question that the contemporary American fondness for the death penalty runs counter, as Supreme Court Justice William Brennan said in his concurring opinion in Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972), to "evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society" (p 270).
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