Capital punishment

Capital punishment is the state-sanctioned execution of a person as punishment for a crime. It is also called the death penalty.

Capital trial: A criminal trial in which the prosecution may seek the death penalty. A jury or judge must determine guilt and, where required, whether death is warranted.
Life imprisonment: A prison sentence requiring a person to remain incarcerated for life, sometimes with parole eligibility. It is the principal alternative to execution in many capital cases.
Code of Hammurabi: An eighteenth-century BCE Babylonian law collection prescribing penalties for offenses. Its laws illustrate early written use of death as a state punishment.
Wrongful conviction: A conviction of a person who did not commit the crime or was not legally guilty. Execution makes correction impossible when a capital conviction is wrong.
Criminal justice: The institutions and processes through which societies define offenses, adjudicate guilt, and impose sanctions. Capital punishment is the most severe sanction within criminal justice systems.
Death-eligible offense: A crime for which the law permits a death sentence. Eligibility rules restrict which convictions can lead to execution.
Life imprisonment without parole: A life sentence that offers no possibility of release through parole. It imposes permanent confinement without deliberately killing the prisoner.
Roman law: The legal system developed in ancient Rome and its territories. Roman law shaped later European criminal codes and execution practices.
Deterrence: The prevention of conduct through the threat or experience of punishment. Whether executions deter homicide more than long imprisonment remains disputed.
Human rights: Fundamental rights and freedoms held by all people. International debates frame execution as a question of rights and state power.

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