Since colonial days, administration of the death penalty-whether by hanging, firing squad, electrocution, or lethal injection-has persisted as one of the most controversial ethical and practical issues of American jurisprudence. This thorough work seeks to clarify the issue by chronicling every legal execution in Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma, including Indian Territory, through December 2010. Each case history includes a detailed description of the crime, the pursuit and capture of the suspect, his or her pre-trial experiences, the trial, sentencing, incarceration, execution, and its aftermath. While advocates of capital punishment contend that the death penalty remains a powerful deterrent to murder, this revealing examination highlights a history of patterns and practices that strongly refutes that claim.