“There have long been compelling reasons to oppose the death penalty: the persistence of race, class, and ethnic bias; its profound arbitrariness; its failure to deter more effectively than its alternatives; its exceptional costs. The power of such critiques is itself significantly enhanced by the convergence of the two forces – international pressure and the innocence argument – on which this book focuses. The fact that a significant number of those whose lives the state ends are not only selected on arbitrary and discriminatory grounds, but also are innocent of the crime for which they are being punished only intensifies the gravity of the abuse of state power that constitutes the American death penalty.”