capital punishment
Americannoun
noun
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In the United States, capital punishment has been an extremely controversial issue on legal, moral, and ethical grounds. In 1972, the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was not, in principle, cruel and unusual punishment (and not, therefore, unconstitutional), but that its implementation through existing state laws was unconstitutional. In 1976, the Supreme Court again ruled that the death penalty was not unconstitutional, though a mandatory death penalty for any crime was. Thirty-nine states now practice the death penalty.
Etymology
Origin of capital punishment
First recorded in 1575–85
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The Court had in prior decades issued many emergency orders in election and capital punishment cases.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 24, 2026
South Korea has an unofficial moratorium on capital punishment -- the last prisoners were executed in 1997 -- with a death sentence effectively banishing Yoon to life behind bars.
From Barron's • Feb. 19, 2026
Opponents of capital punishment have rejected it on religious, ethical and legal grounds arguing it goes against Jewish law, violates the right to life and brings a risk of executing innocent people.
From BBC • Jan. 31, 2026
Mexico has abolished capital punishment and routinely seeks U.S. guarantees that any suspects extradited or otherwise sent to the United States will not face the death penalty.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 20, 2026
The problem was so significant in Illinois that in 2003, Governor George Ryan, a Republican, citing the unreliability of capital punishment, commuted the death sentences of all 167 people on death row.
From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
