Capital punishment, commonly known as the death penalty, is the most severe form of punishment given by the State , where a person is sentenced to death for committing a serious crime. When a court orders this punishment, it is called a death sentence, and the act of carrying it out is known as execution. A person who has been sentenced to death and is waiting for the punishment to be carried out is said to be on death row. The term “capital” comes from the Latin word caput, meaning “head.” In earlier periods, punishments such as beheading were widely used for serious offences. Over time, the term “capital punishment” came to represent the highest level of punishment that a legal system can impose.