The death penalty is not a constitutional provision in the United States, but it has been available as a penalty for certain federal offenses throughout the history of U.S. criminal law. The death penalty imposed by federal courts has not been found unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court, as was stated in Furman v. Georgia in 1972. However, the Court has placed limitations on the penalty in several decisions since the 1970s based on the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment, and some effects of these decisions are evident in recent federal law. Despite its rapid return in most states, the federal government's reinstatement of the penalty dates back to 1988 and only for a very limited set of crimes. The 1994 federal death penalty law greatly expanded the number of crimes eligible for the penalty to about 60. Intentional deprivation of life, treason, espionage, and widespread drug trafficking and its leadership are among the examples of crimes punishable by death, each requiring specific substantive and formal requirements for their issuance. The present article, focusing on the substantive requirements for issuing the death penalty, seeks to identify these requirements and explain them in the criminal law of the U.S. federal government through a descriptive-analytical research method.