President Donald Trump has signed a memorandum reimplementing the death penalty in the District of Columbia, and the administration said it also will begin pushing capital punishment nationwide.
Existing law permitting the federal government to conduct executions for “aggravated crimes” will be imposed on the nation’s capital, according to the action Trump signed Sept. 25. The move follows an executive order greenlighting his August takeover of Washington, D.C.
“The attorney general and the United States attorney for the District of Columbia shall fully enforce federal law with respect to capital punishment in the District of Columbia by seeking the death penalty in all appropriate cases where, following full examination of the evidence and other relevant information, the applicable factors justify a sentence of death,” Trump directed in the new memo.
Trump has long professed a devotion to capital punishment as a deterrent to crime — a claim consistently proven to be untrue — and made the issue a theme of his re-election campaign. His Jan. 20 executive order reviving the U.S. death penalty blasted President Joe Biden’s 2021 moratorium on federal executions and criticized his predecessor for commuting the death sentences of 37 inmates on federal Death Row.
“These 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,” says the Day One executive order.
The administration subsequently has sought capital charges against defendants already being prosecuted for lesser sentences. So far those efforts have faltered, the Associated Press reported.
Trump’s latest action in Washington, D.C., revives capital punishment in a city that abolished the practice in 1981, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. He also has federalized municipal law enforcement and deployed National Guard troops in the city after federalizing the city.
Justin Mazolla
“This is yet another move and a clear signal that President Trump is once again trying to increase the judicial machinery of death in the United States,” said Justin Mazzola, deputy director of research for Amnesty International USA.
“During his first term, he ended a decades-long hiatus in federal executions, becoming the first president in 17 years to carry out federal death sentences,” Mazzola added. “In the final six months of his first term, amidst a global pandemic, 13 people were sent to the death chamber in rapid succession in a drive to execute as many people as possible before leaving office.”
But Attorney General Pamela Bondi said the effort isn’t stopping there, CNN reported: “Not only are we seeking it in Washington, D.C., but all over the country — again.”
CNN reported: “The attorney general added that the Justice Department is also in the process of placing inmates who had been moved off Death Row by former President Joe Biden into maximum security facilities.”
“Trump’s latest stunt to mandate the death penalty in D.C. makes a mockery of public safety.”
CNN added the administration’s efforts are likely to meet significant resistance in other cities and previously reported that juries in Washington, D.C., may be resistant to voting for death in capital cases. Currently, 23 states do not have the death penalty and executions have been placed on hold in California, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Oregon.
“This announcement isn’t about making communities safer, it is another distraction from actions by the administration that are making all of us less safe and plunging us further toward authoritarian rule,” the Southern Poverty Law Center responded.
“Americans deserve a president who will take our safety seriously. But President Trump’s latest stunt to mandate the death penalty in D.C. makes a mockery of public safety. If Trump truly cared about reducing crime, he would follow the lead of the District of Columbia’s most successful, community-centered strategies that are proven to make communities safer.”
Citing statistics disproving the effectiveness of capital punishment in deterring crime, SPLC noted the administration’s real interest is in striking fear into people of color.
“They are simply interested in creating a culture of fear and intimidation that will unfairly target Black and brown communities. Historically, the death penalty has been used to target Black citizens at higher rates, leading to unfair convictions and innocent people being sentenced to Death Row with little to no evidence. A society committed to ending crime cannot be dedicated to capital punishment.”
U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass, condemned Trump for seeking to expand capital punishment: “Like Donald Trump himself, the death penalty is flawed and deeply racist. It is a fundamentally unjust punishment that has no place in any society. It has been disproportionately weaponized against Black and brown communities and failed to make America any safer — which is why we’ve worked persistently to abolish it and successfully partnered with President Biden to re-sentence most of federal death row.”
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