This revised Second Edition is an update of the innovative, balanced, and comprehensive overview of capital punishment. It offers an unbiased examination of the death penalty, supported by statistics, Supreme Court cases, and critical essays. The book addresses every major issue relating to the death penalty including deterrence, racial impact, arbitrariness, its use on special populations, and methods of execution. Designed for undergraduate and graduate level courses on the death penalty, and useful too for classes on ethics and law, this text challenges students to evaluate their basic beliefs and assumptions on each controversial subject area. Each chapter begins with a primer of the issue to be discussed, followed by the data and critical documents necessary to make an educated assessment, and concludes with essays that offer differing viewpoints by some of the best minds in the country.