Presents essays on a variety of aspects regarding the death penalty, including debates on its effect on crimes as a deterrent.

The death penalty and the capital trial / Mark Costanzo & Lawrence. T. White -- The revival of the American death penealty / Tom Philips -- The undying problem of the death penalty / Hiller B. Zobel -- The Supreme Court and the death penalty / David O. Stewart -- Anger and ambivalence / David A. Kaplan -- Why Americans approve of the death penalty / Christopher Hitchens -- The death penalty as a communal response to evil / David Gelernter -- Ensuring justice with the death penalty / George E. Pataki -- The case against the death penalty / Carol Fennelly -- The death penalty can be administered fairly / John McAdams -- The death penalty cannot be administered fairly / Leigh B. Bienen -- Racial discrimination and the administration of the death penalty / Stanley Rothman & Stephen Powers -- Women are often unfairly sentenced to death / Whitney George -- Women on death row are rarely executed / Mark Hansen -- The wrong men on death row / Joseph P. Shapiro -- Mistaken executions cannot be corrected / Jonathan Rauch -- One man's long battle on death row / Tena Jamison Lee -- Sending a man to die / Alex Kozinski -- The death of Robert Alton Harris / Michael Kroll -- A test of faith: witnessing a friend's execution / William Vance Trolinger, jr.