Capital punishment
Legal process whereby a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in such a manner is called a death sentence, and the act of carrying out the sentence is an execution. A prisoner who has been sentenced to death and awaits execution is condemned and is commonly referred to as being "on death row". Etymologically, the term capital refers to execution by beheading, but executions are carried out by many methods.
Also known as...
death sentence, death punishment, sentenced to death, death penalty, execution, judicial homicide, and state-sanctioned execution