The United States also ranks first in the number of people on death row--more than 3,500 at present.  
 
Execution of minors
This is one of the few countries in the world known to have executed minors since 1990. Until recently the United States was one of only six countries legally allowing the execution of mentally impaired persons--the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against this barbaric practice last June. Some 35 mentally impaired individuals have been executed since 1976, and another 200 to 300 sat on death row at the time of the court's ruling last year.

Capital punishment in the United States is used overwhelmingly against workers and farmers, particularly Blacks, who comprise 35 percent of the total number of executions and 43 percent of those on death row.

The use of the death penalty by the capitalist rulers grew rapidly as the United States became an imperialist power in the late 19th century. It peaked at a rate of nearly 200 in the mid-1930s--the period of the last major labor upsurge in the United States--and, after a period of decline in use and a suspension of executions between 1967 and 1976, the use of the death penalty has again risen sharply over the past quarter-decade.  
 
 
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