The pace of USA executions is on the rise, pushed by...

The pace of USA executions is on the rise, pushed by laws passed earlier this decade that limit appeals. There were 98 executions in the USA in 1999 - 30 more than last year and the most since 1951. Of these, 35 took place in Texas, 14 in Virginia (the highest number since 1909), 9 in Missouri, 7 in Arizona, 6 in Oklahoma (including the first execution of a 16-year-old offender in the U.S. in 40 years), 4 in Arkansas, North Carolina and South Carolina, 2 in Alabama, California and Delaware, and one in Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nevada, Ohio (its first execution in over thirty-five years), Pennsylvania and Utah. The USA has executed nearly 600 inmates since the Supreme Court lifted its ban on capital punishment in 1976. Texas alone executed 199 inmates since the death penalty was reinstated. 113 of these executions have occurred in the administration of Governor and Presidential candidate George W. Bush, who is proud to call himself "the law-and-order Governor."While the USA continues to execute prisoners in record numbers, presidential candidates discuss other issues in political debates. No major candidate appears concerned that included in this number are people who were severely mentally ill and retarded, juvenile offenders who committed their crimes before the age of 18, people who have been clearly rehabilitated while incarcerated, citizens of other countries whose consular rights were violated by the USA. Nor do they seem concerned that innocent people have been sentenced to death, and a disproportionate number of those on death row are poor, African-Americans and other minorities. No candidate appears concerned that the execution record of the USA has been severely criticized by the U.N. Human Rights Commission, the American Bar Association, the Catholic Church and many other communities of faith.