The book opens with a short history of the death penalty and reviews debates over its use as a legal, religious, ethical, and political issue. The first six essays discuss whether the death penalty is legally just; whether executions can be humane; whether the death penalty needs to be humane; whether the death penalty can ease the suffering of victims' families; and whether the death penalty encourages vengeance, not healing. The next two essays discuss whether the death penalty deters murder or is too inefficient to deter murder, and a third essay claims that improving its efficiency will not make the death penalty a deterrent. The next three essays consider whether the death penalty unfairly targets minorities and whether innocent people have been executed. The final essay claims that execution of an innocent person should not preclude the use of the death penalty. The book includes a list of study questions. Notes, figures, appendixes, references, index