The book seeks to determine why the United States uses the death penalty, a form of sentencing that so many people disagree with, that so many people have condemned, that so many people believe is brutal, totalitarian, discriminatory, unconstitutional, and unfair. The death penalty is confined, by law, to only 1 or 2 percent of the worst, most horrifying, most blameworthy kinds of murders. The book tells the stories of six capital cases, treating them as a collection of individual stories. The book then uses the stories to examine what the death penalty is all about, and the arguments in favor of society's use of the death penalty. The six cases provide evidence to support those arguments. The cases also provide evidence to support arguments against capital punishment. The book claims that society cannot leave the death penalty issue to the experts--there are no experts. Citizens must acquire sufficient knowledge to turn aside the sophistries with which they are assaulted daily from both sides.