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.

In Connecticut, the death penalty has been abolished. The state repealed capital punishment in 2012, but the repeal was not retroactive, initially leaving inmates on death row still facing execution. However, in 2015, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that the application of the death penalty was unconstitutional, effectively commuting the sentences of those remaining on death row to life imprisonment without the possibility of release. This decision was based on the grounds that the death penalty no longer met societal standards of decency and no longer served any legitimate penological purpose. As a result, Connecticut is one of the twenty-two states, along with the District of Columbia, that do not have the death penalty as a potential punishment for any criminal offense.