capital offenses
Death penalty violations
Capital offenses are crimes so serious that they may be punished by death.
The term comes from the Latin word for head, reflecting the historical practice of beheading as execution.
Murder is the most common capital offense, though treason, espionage, and certain drug trafficking crimes qualify in some jurisdictions.
Whether a crime is classified as a capital offense varies significantly by country and, in the United States, by state.
The prosecutor argued that the brutal nature of the killing made it a capital offense.
- gallowsExecution hanging apparatus
- treasonBetraying one's nation
- high treasonBetrayal of one's nation
- executionerOne who kills condemned
- cellBasic unit of life
hanging · rope · death sentence · stay of execution · punishment · electric chair · gas chamber · last meal · genocide · espionage · arson · crimes · terrorism · Sanhedrin · abolition movements · murders · serial killer · sabotage
- crimesarson, burglary, robbery, kidnapping, vandalism
- Georgian crimedeath penalty, hanging, transportation, public execution, gallows
- Biblical lawsTen Commandments, dietary laws, sabbath laws, kosher laws, clean animals
capital offensesmisdemeanors
Minor legal violations
petty offenses · minor offenses · petty crimes · infractions · violations
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