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 North Carolina, the death penalty is a legal form of punishment for certain capital offenses, primarily first-degree murder with specific aggravating circumstances. The statutes governing capital punishment are found in the North Carolina General Statutes, particularly in Chapter 15A, which deals with criminal procedure, and Chapter 14, which defines criminal offenses including murder. The decision to seek the death penalty is at the discretion of the district attorney. When a defendant is charged with a capital offense, the case may be tried as a capital case, which means that if the defendant is convicted, the sentencing phase will determine whether the death penalty is to be imposed. The process is guided by statutory requirements, and the jury must find beyond a reasonable doubt that at least one statutory aggravating factor exists to consider sentencing the defendant to death. If the jury does not unanimously agree on a death sentence, a life sentence without parole is the alternative. It's important to note that while the death penalty is legal in North Carolina, there has been a de facto moratorium on executions since 2006 due to various legal challenges and difficulties in obtaining the drugs used for lethal injections.