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 Kansas, the death penalty is legal and is governed by state statutes. Capital punishment can be imposed for certain aggravated murders as defined by the Kansas Statutes Annotated (K.S.A.). The specific conditions under which the death penalty may be applied are detailed in K.S.A. 21-5401, which defines capital murder, and K.S.A. 21-6617 to 21-6624, which outline the procedures for imposing a death sentence. These statutes specify the aggravating and mitigating circumstances that must be considered during the sentencing phase of a capital trial. Kansas reinstated the death penalty in 1994 after the state's previous capital punishment law was struck down in 1972 following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Furman v. Georgia. However, as of the knowledge cutoff date in 2023, Kansas has not executed any inmates since reinstating the death penalty, and there is ongoing debate about the future of capital punishment in the state.