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 the state of Delaware (DE), the death penalty was previously a legal form of punishment for certain capital offenses, such as first-degree murder under specific aggravating circumstances. However, in 2016, the Delaware Supreme Court ruled in the case of Rauf v. State that the state's death penalty statute was unconstitutional because it allowed judges, rather than juries, to make the final decision to impose a death sentence. Following this ruling, Delaware no longer imposes the death penalty, effectively placing it among the states that do not have the death penalty as a potential punishment for any criminal offense. It's important to note that while the death penalty is not currently enforced in Delaware, the statutes have not been formally repealed, and future legislative actions or court decisions could potentially change the status of capital punishment in the state.