Death penalty opponents fear President Donald Trump is poised to start an “execution spree” after returning to the White House on Monday.
Why It Matters
Just hours after his inauguration, Trump signed a executive order that directs the attorney general to seek the death penalty in appropriate federal cases and to help preserve capital punishment in states that have had difficulty obtaining lethal injection drugs.
It came days after former Attorney General Merrick Garland announce that the Justice Department is rescinding its single-drug lethal injection protocol for federal executions after a review raised concerns about execution by pentobarbital causing “unnecessary pain and suffering.”
Trump oversaw 13 federal executions during his first term and spoke of expanding executions on the campaign trial. He had been expected to resume federal executions after returning to office, which have been on hold since Garland imposed a moratorium in 2021. However, only three inmates remain on federal death row after President Joe Biden commuted the death sentences of 37 of them to life in prison in December.
Jim Watson/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
What To Know
Trump’s order directed the attorney general to pursue federal jurisdiction and seek the death penalty “regardless of other factors” when the case involves the murder of a law enforcement officer or capital crimes “committed by an alien illegally present in this country.”
It says the attorney general should encourage state attorneys general and district attorneys to bring state capital charges for all capital crimes “regardless of whether the federal trial results in a capital sentence.”
The order instructed the attorney general to seek to overrule Supreme Court precedents that “limit the authority of State and Federal governments to impose capital punishment.”
It also said the attorney general “shall take all necessary and lawful action” to ensure that states have enough drugs to carry out lethal injection executions.
Furthermore, Trump’s order instructed the attorney general to evaluate whether the 37 inmates whose death sentences Biden commuted can be charged with state capital crimes and “recommend appropriate action to state and local authorities.”
It also said the attorney general should evaluate those inmates’ prison conditions to “ensure that these offenders are imprisoned in conditions consistent with the monstrosity of their crimes and the threats they pose.”
Abraham Bonowitz, the executive director of Death Penalty Action, told Newsweek that Trump’s pledge to expand capital punishment is “one promise he can’t wait to keep.”
He added that while Biden’s actions left seven inmates on federal and military death row and that the former president “primed the pump” for Trump to resume his “execution spree.”
What People Are Saying
Bonowitz said that Trump’s order “demanding capital charges for the murder of law enforcement officers or capital crimes by illegal aliens is unnecessary bluster, because the death penalty already exists for such crimes. But Trump can’t help himself. Donald Trump’s Agenda2025 articulated his plan to drastically increase executions, and we all know this is one promise he can’t wait to keep.”
He added: “We are also dismayed at President Biden’s cynical compromise that commuted 37 federal death sentences while leaving seven prisoners on federal and military death rows. While expressing both his personal opposition to the death penalty and his desire to maintain the moratorium on executions he imposed in 2021, Biden has nevertheless primed the pump for Donald Trump to resume his execution spree.”
Trump’s order said efforts “to subvert and undermine capital punishment defy the laws of our nation, make a mockery of justice, and insult the victims of these horrible crimes. The Government’s most solemn responsibility is to protect its citizens from abhorrent acts, and my Administration will not tolerate efforts to stymie and eviscerate the laws that authorize capital punishment against those who commit horrible acts of violence against American citizens.”
What’s Next
Trump cannot reverse Biden’s commutations, and the three remaining on federal death row—Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Charleston church killer Dylann Roof, and Pittsburgh synagogue shooter Robert Bowers—have filed appeals and legal challenges to their death sentences that must be resolved before their executions can proceed.
The first state execution of the year is scheduled to take place later this month. South Carolina is preparing to put Marion Bowman to death on January 31, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
