Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of California. However, the penalty has not been carried out in that state since 2006, due to a standing federal court order issued that year against the practice, and a 2019 moratorium on executions ordered by Governor Gavin Newsom. The litigation resulting in the court order has been on hold since the promulgation of the moratorium. Should the moratorium end and the freeze conclude, executions could resume under the current state law.

The state carried out 709 executions from 1778^{[clarification needed]} until 1972 when the California Supreme Court struck down California's capital punishment statute in the case People v. Anderson. California voters reinstated the death penalty a few months later, with Proposition 17 legalizing the death penalty in the state constitution and ending the Anderson ruling. However, in the interim, the U.S. Supreme Court in Furman v. Georgia imposed a nationwide moratorium on capital punishment. Furman, along with continued challenges at the state level, delayed implementation of Proposition 17 for several years. As a result, the death penalty was not restored in California until 1977, under a statute approved by People v. Frierson in 1979.

The state's first post-Anderson execution was carried out in 1992. Since that time, there have been 13 executions, yet hundreds of inmates have been sentenced. The last execution that took place in California was in 2006. Three death row inmates in California, Kelvin Malone, Alfredo Prieto, and Glen Edward Rogers, have also been executed in Missouri, Virginia, and Florida, respectively.

As of July 2026^[update], official California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) records show that there are 568 inmates awaiting execution in California, the lowest it has been since 2011, primarily due to suicide, death from other causes, fewer juries willing to sentence people to death, and resentencings by newly elected district attorneys, among other things. 18 of those with death sentences are women, held in general population at Central California Women's Facility (CCWF) in Chowchilla, with the other 550 inmates awaiting execution being men who are housed throughout the state, most having been transferred from the former death row at San Quentin State Prison.

California voters rejected two initiatives to repeal the death penalty by popular vote in 2012 and 2016, and they narrowly adopted in 2016 another proposal to expedite its appeal process. On August 26, 2021, the California Supreme Court upheld the state's death penalty rules though as of 2026 executions have yet to resume.

The first known death sentence in California was recorded in 1778. On April 6, 1778, four Kumeyaay chiefs from a Mission San Diego area ranchería were convicted of conspiring to kill Christians and were sentenced to death by José Francisco Ortega, Commandant of the Presidio of San Diego; the four were to be shot on April 11. However, there is some doubt whether the executions actually took place.

Four methods have been used historically for executions. Until slightly before California was admitted into the Union, executions were carried out by firing squad. Upon admission, the state adopted hanging as the method of choice.

The penal code was modified on February 14, 1872, to state that hangings were to take place inside the confines of the county jail or other private places. The only people allowed to be present were the county sheriff, a physician, and the county District Attorney, who would in addition select at least 12 "reputable citizens". No more than two "ministers of the gospel" and no more than five people selected by the condemned could also be present.