Murder, treason, spying and offences against the State are capital crimes.

Murder, treason, spying and offences against the State are capital crimes.
The 1992 Constitution fully abolished the death penalty, which is still provided for in the Penal Code. The last execution was carried out in October 1982, when two men went before a firing squad for murder.
The country's first multi-party elections in 1992, won by Pascal Lissouba, were disputed, leading to a first bout of internal strife in 1993. In 1997 a full-scale civil war broke out. Former marxist military ruler Denis Sassou Nguesso won power again in 1997 with the help of Angola, ousting the then President Pascal Lissouba and his Prime Minister Bernard Kolelas, who were then condemned to death in absentia for crimes committed during the civil war.
Militia loyal to Kolelas and Lissouba took up arms in mid-1998, leading to fresh clashes that put hundreds of thousands of civilians (reportedly 800,000) to flight in 1999 in the capital's southern suburbs and in the south of the country.
Peace deals between the government and militia commanders in November and December 1999 halted the fighting. Some rebels continued to fight government forces in the southern Pool region until another peace deal was signed in March 2003.
In 2002, the first political elections held since 1992 were won by Denis Sassou-Nguesso, who started a seven-year term in March of that year. Former President Pascal Lissouba and former Prime Minister Bernard Kolelas were excluded from taking part by a residency law. A new constitution giving the president more powers was adopted by referendum in January 2002.
In August 2007, on the occasion of the national holiday, all death-sentences were commuted to hard labor for life by the head of state. Reports indicate that 17 death-sentenced prisoners were affected by the presidential decree.
In 2009, under the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review process, Congo supported the following recommendations, concerning death penalty: to consider accelerating the ratification of the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR and  to abolish the death penalty. The Country sipported also others recommendations concerning improvement of jail conditions and of the judicial system.
On December 20, 2012, Congo co-sponsored and voted in favour of the Resolution on a Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty at the UN General Assembly.