List of figures; List of tables; Notes on the contributors; 1. Capital punishment: improve it or remove it? Peter Hodgkinson; 2. International law and the death penalty: reflecting or promoting change? William A. Schabas; 3. Doctors and the death penalty: ethics and a cruel punishment Robert Ferris and James Welsh; 4. Replacing the death penalty: the vexed issue of alternative sanctions Andrew Coyle; 5. Religion and the death penalty in the United States: past and present James J. Megivern; 6. On botched executions Marian J. Borg and Michael L. Radelet; 7. Death as a penalty in the Shari'ā M. Cherif Bassiouni; 8. Abolishing the death penalty in the United States: an analysis of institutional obstacles and future prospects Hugo Adam Bedau; 9. Capital punishment in the United State: moratorium efforts and other key developments Ronald J. Tabak; 10. The experiences of Lithuania's journey to abolition Alexsandras Dobryninas; 11. The death penalty in South Korea and Japan: 'Asian values' and the debate about capital punishment? Byung-Sun Cho; 12. Georgia, former republic of the USSR: managing abolition Eric Svanidze; 13. Capital punishment in the Commonwealth Caribbean: colonial inheritance, colonial remedy? Julian B. Knowles; 14. Public opinion and the death penalty William A. Schabas; 15. Capital punishment: meeting the needs of the families of the homicide victim and the condemned Peter Hodgkinson; Index.