Why does the United States, the Super Power of the free world, find it necessary to continue executing prisoners who have committed the most heinous of crimes when the majority of the industrialized world have abolished Capital Punishment? Most industrialized nations have begun a trend to confine prisoners to long terms of mandatory imprisonment and stiff fines in lieu of execution for the most severe crimes. The United States is an exception to this trend and find themselves with non-industrialized nations such as, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as the five nations that conducted 85 percent of all executions in 1999 (Capital Punishment, Sec. C Par. 3).
             For the first time in history, by the late twentieth century, the nations of the world were evenly divided with respect to the death penalty. Lines were clearly drawn between the nations that did and did not support the death penalty. In general, industrial democracies such as, Western Europe and the majority of South America, have abolished the death penalty, while non-industrialized nations, such as, Asian, Islamic and African countries are more likely to continue with capital punishment.
             The United States is the only Western industrialized nation that still uses capital punishment. The death penalty, according to many opinion polls, has significant support by the general public. Currently, 38 states allow capital punishment, 29 of those states have actually executed criminals since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. Most executions conducted were in states geographically located in the south. Six of the 29 states, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, Texas, Virginia, and Georgia, conducted 70 percent of all the executions(Capital Punishment Statistics, Par. 1). For example, in 1977 Texas put to death 37 prisoners, as many as all the rest of the states combined (Death Row Facts, Texas Department of Criminal Justice).
             ...