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 New Jersey, the death penalty is no longer a legal form of punishment. New Jersey abolished capital punishment in 2007 with the passage of a law that replaced the death penalty with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. This decision was influenced by concerns about the moral and practical implications of capital punishment, as well as the possibility of wrongful convictions. Prior to its abolition, the death penalty in New Jersey was governed by state statutes that outlined the specific circumstances under which it could be applied, typically for particularly heinous murders. However, since the abolition, no individual can be sentenced to death in New Jersey for any criminal offense, regardless of its severity.