of the issues surrounding the death penalty in the United States. Arguments for and against capital punishment are examined. The book begins by tracing the history of the death penalty in the United States, from the colonial period to modern times (1608 until the mid-1960s). It reviews landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions that shaped the practice of capital punishment. Also discussed are methods of execution; the issue of general deterrence; incapacitation and economic costs of capital punishment; miscarriages of justice in capital cases; arbitrariness and discrimination in the administration of the death penalty; and retribution and religion in relation to the death penalty. The book concludes with a discussion of American death penalty opinion. It covers the history of death penalty opinion; research on the hypothesis that support for the death penalty is largely a product of ignorance about capital punishment; and the future of American death penalty opinions and their potential impact on the use of capital punishment in the United States.Comprehensive, unbiased review of developments in death penalty law and procedure, including new case law on death-eligible crimes and execution by lethal injectionCurrent data on costs, miscarriages of justice, discriminatory application, religion, and death penalty public opinionAnalysis of new research regarding the effectiveness of the death penalty in terms of deterrence, retribution, and incapacitation

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