Page "Capital punishment" Paragraph 0

Capital punishment or the death penalty is a legal process whereby a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for a crime.

The judicial decree that someone be punished in this manner is a death sentence, while the actual process of killing the person is an execution.

Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences.

The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally " regarding the head " ( referring to execution by beheading ).