Machine derived contents note: Foreword; Preface; Acknowledgments; Part I. The Road to 1987: 1. The rest of the Western world; 2. The long-term trend that failed; 3. The death penalty and the Eighth Amendment; 4. A punishment in search of a crime; Part II. Futures and Consequences: 5. A game of chicken; 6. Only in America: some notes on lethal injection; 7. Life in a country that kills; 8. The path to abolition; Appendix: deterrence and the death penalty; Index