Americans have argued over the death penalty since the early days of the republic. Today, high-profile cases provide frequent opportunities for debate between proponents and opponents of capital punishment. For example, in 1997, Timothy McVeigh was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1993 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, which killed 168 people. The execution of Karla Faye Tucker in 1998 for the pickax murder of two people was the first execution of a woman in Texas since 1863 and the second nationally since 1984. In addition, private concerns Americans have about the effect of violent crime on their neighborhoods and families have led many to decide that the death penalty is an acceptable form of punishment and to support politicians who favor it. Public or private, the debate over the death penalty revolves around three questions: 1) Is capital punishment allowable under the U.S. Constitution? 2) Is it moral? 3) Does it...