death penalty

punishment of death for a criminal offense

"Death penalty," "Death sentence," and "Execution" redirect here. For other uses, see Death penalty (disambiguation), Death Sentence (disambiguation), or Execution (disambiguation). For the Big Pun album, see Capital Punishment (album).Capital punishment, also called the death penalty, is the execution of a convicted criminal by the state as punishment for crimes known as capital crimes or capital offences. Historically, the execution of criminals and political opponents was used by nearly all societies—both to punish crime and to suppress political dissent. Among countries around the world, almost all European and many Pacific Area states (including Australia, New Zealand and Timor Leste), and Canada have abolished capital punishment. In Latin America, most states have completely abolished the use of capital punishment, while some countries, however, like Brazil, allow for capital punishment only in exceptional situations, such as treason committed during wartime. The United States, Guatemala, most of the Caribbean and the majority of democracies in Asia (e.g. Japan and India) and Africa (e.g. Botswana and Zambia) retain it.
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Noun
1. putting a condemned person to death
(synonym) execution, executing, capital punishment
(hypernym) corporal punishment
(hyponym) burning, burning at the stake

Also known as capital punishment, this is the most severe form of corporal punishment as it is requires law enforcement officers to kill the offender. - (read more on Death penalty)