Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the execution of a person by the state as punishment for a crime. In most places that practice capital punishment today, the death penalty is reserved as punishment for premeditated murder, espionage, treason, or as part of military justice. In some countries sexual crimes, such as rape, adultery and sodomy, carry the death penalty, as do religious crimes such as apostasy, in many countries that use the death penalty drug trafficking is also a capital offense.…
