The death penalty—also known as capital punishment—refers to the process of state and federal courts sentencing persons convicted of the most serious criminal offenses (capital offenses or capital crimes) to death. The specific crimes and circumstances for which the death penalty is a potential punishment (usually murder) are defined by state and federal statutes enacted by state legislatures and the United States Congress, respectively.

These death penalty or capital punishment statutes are often located in the penal or criminal code, and often in the same statute that defines a criminal offense such as murder. Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia do not have the death penalty as a potential punishment for any criminal offense.

As of the knowledge cutoff in 2023, Colorado has abolished the death penalty. The state legislature passed a bill to repeal the death penalty, which was signed into law by Governor Jared Polis on March 23, 2020. The repeal is not retroactive, meaning it does not apply to the sentences of the individuals who were already on death row at the time the law was signed. However, Governor Polis commuted the sentences of those individuals to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Prior to the repeal, Colorado's death penalty statutes were part of the state's criminal code and outlined the specific circumstances under which the death penalty could be applied, typically for certain types of first-degree murder. With the repeal, Colorado joined the ranks of states that do not have the death penalty as a potential punishment for any criminal offense.