( CNN ) The case of a Georgia woman , whose execution was postponed for a second time Monday , is once again shining the national spotlight on one of the most fundamental questions we as a nation face : When do we put our own citizens to death ? But it 's an issue on which this country is all over the place . `` As it relates to crimes against individuals ... the death penalty should not be expanded to instances where the victim 's life was not taken . '' That was Justice Anthony Kennedy , writing for the majority in Kennedy v. Louisiana ( 2008 ) . You might think at first the Department of Justice is n't listening . After all , the U.S. federal government lists dozens of capital offenses that are punishable by death , and not all of them involve a victim 's life being taken . They fall into three main categories : 1 ) homicide offenses ; 2 ) espionage and treason ; and 3 ) nonhomicidal narcotics offenses . While most of them involve the death of a victim , not all of them do . But what happened to all that `` should n't expand death penalty to crimes where the victim 's life was not taken '' language from the Supreme Court ? Does n't the Department of Justice have to listen to the Supreme Court ? They do , and they have . The Department of Justice has read the high court 's fine print in Kennedy v. Louisiana : `` Our concern here is limited to crimes against individual persons . We do not address , for example , crimes defining and punishing treason , espionage , terrorism , and drug kingpin activity , which are offenses against the State . As it relates to crimes against individuals , though , the death penalty should not be expanded to instances where the victim 's life was not taken . '' Ah . As with most things , there are exceptions to the rule -- though reasonable minds may differ on the reasoning behind those exceptions . Apparently , when we are talking about crimes against people , the death penalty should not be expanded to nonhomicide-type crimes . If it 's a crime against the state , well , it 's game on . After all , treason is one of three crimes mentioned in the U.S. Constitution , so there 's a good argument that the federal statute authorizing death for treason is `` constitutional '' -- because it 's actually in the constitution . ( Yet another reason why federal court is not a place where defendants want to be -- it 's no secret defense attorneys would rather be in state court , where the penalties are less severe and where everything is n't illegal ) . While it varies from state to state , as a very general proposition , the death penalty is almost universally reserved for the crime of murder . Murder is a subcategory of the broader class of homicide , and death penalty crimes are normally a subcategory of murder . As another very general proposition in the States , murder -- plus something on top that makes it more egregious -- is what will qualify as a capital crime . It would be nice to say that capital murder in the states is always defined as an intentional killing , but even that has exceptions . In fact , in some states , you can be executed for a victim 's death even if you did n't actually pull the trigger and even if you never intended a death to result . If you commit an inherently dangerous felony , and a death results , you can be charged with `` felony murder , '' which in some states qualifies you for the death penalty . According to the Supreme Court , this is constitutional , as long as the defendant significantly participated in the felony and was recklessly indifferent to human life . Ultimately , it 's nearly impossible to articulate a simple rule for determining which crimes our society deems worthy of the death penalty . Society 's view of the death penalty is constantly evolving , and so is the view of appropriate death penalty crimes . As a general rule , horrific murders qualify , but sometimes a nonhomicide crime such as espionage qualifies . If you are in the armed forces , even more crimes can get you executed , such as desertion . That 's particularly paradoxical that we might order our military personnel to intentionally kill in times of war and then execute them -- as was the case of Pvt . Eddie Slovik -- for refusing to intentionally participate in the killing . Of course , we have long recognized that military justice requires a degree of martial discipline that the civilian world simply does n't . While the husband-wife execution of convicted spies ( and nonkillers ) Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were certainly high profile at the time , the modern reality is that every person executed since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976 participated in a crime in which a victim died . So what exactly will earn you the death penalty ? The message is anything but clear . For crimes against the person , it has to be pretty awful : A killing plus something that makes it even worse than your garden variety homicide . If your crime is against the state , however , the Supreme Court will give the state some leeway in killing citizens .
U.S. federal government lists dozens of capital offenses punishable by death . The list includes murder, rape, kidnapping, robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, and other violent crimes that are not covered under the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution.