The modern era of capital punishment in the United States dates from the reinstatement in 1976 of state death penalty laws invalidated by the Supreme Court in 1972. During the moratorium period, state legislatures around the nation revised their legislation and procedures in an effort to pass constitutional review. Today more than 3,000 convicted criminals sit on the various death rows around the country. The revival of the death penalty in the modern era reflects in some ways a return to longstanding American traditions of justice, as the United States (like most Western countries) has a long history of capital punishment. There are, however, important differences between the modern and the pre-moratorium death penalty. In this chapter we look at some long-term trends in the use of capital punishment. We review the chronology of the use of the death penalty since 1800 and more specifically since 1976, we look at its geographical distribution internationally and across the fifty states, we assess the racial breakdown of those executed, and we present other basic background information. Later chapters focus more specifically on public understandings and media framings of capital punishment; our goal in this chapter is simply to lay out the historical context for the current debate.