TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

  1. A History of the Death Penalty

  2. Capital Punishment in the USA

  3. The Electrical Death Commission

  4. The War of the Currents

  5. The Development of the Electric Chair

  6. William Kemmler, the Poor Peddler

  7. The Spread of the Chair

  8. A Cabinet of Curiosities—Six Notable and Unusual Executions

  9. Last Meals

10. A Moratorium on Executions

11. Supreme Court Changes Its Mind—Executions are Back On

12. Back with a Bang

13. Top Ten—The Most Notorious Victims of Old Sparky

14. Refining the Death Penalty

15. The Rise of Lethal Injection

16. The Problem of Innocence

17. Innocence is No Defense—Herrera v. Collins

18. Into the Future

Select Bibliography

Index