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 Rhode Island, the death penalty is not a legal form of punishment. Rhode Island abolished capital punishment for all crimes in 1984. The state's history with the death penalty has been varied, with the last execution taking place in 1845, and the General Assembly repealing the death penalty for all crimes except for the murder of a law enforcement officer in 1979. However, in 1984, the Rhode Island Supreme Court ruled that the state's death penalty statute was unconstitutional, effectively ending capital punishment in the state. Since then, there have been no provisions for capital punishment in Rhode Island's statutes, and it remains 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.