Republican President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday that despite abundant evidence that the death penalty does not deter crime, is racially biased and results in capital punishment, his administration is “making America safe again.” He vowed to use the death penalty “actively” as part of his policy. unjust execution.
In response to Democratic President Joe Biden’s irrevocable commutation of 37 federal death sentences on Monday, President Trump denounced the move on his “Truth Social” platform.
President Trump raged: “Joe Biden just commuted the death sentences of 37 of our country’s worst murderers.” “When you hear each act, you can’t believe he did this. It makes no sense. Relatives and friends are even more devastated. They can’t believe this is happening!”
In another Truth Social post, President Trump said, “Immediately after taking office, I will vigorously push for the death penalty at the Department of Justice to protect American families and children from violent rapists, murderers, and monsters.” I will instruct you to do so.” “We will be a nation of law and order again!”
ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero called Biden’s move “the most significant step by any president in our nation’s history to address the immoral and unconstitutional harm of the death penalty,” calling it “the most important step by any president in our nation’s history.” “It will be a bulwark against Mr. Trump, who has a proven propensity and track record to enforce.” ”
“President Trump executed 13 people in the last six months of his first term, more than any administration in the past 120 years,” Romero said.
Opponents of the death penalty are particularly concerned about President Trump’s campaign promise to seek the federal death penalty for crimes other than murder.
“When I return to the White House, I will immediately end the Biden border nightmare where human traffickers exploit vulnerable women and children,” President Trump said in July 2023. “I will be calling on Congress to ensure that child trafficking is caught across our country.” Borderlands are an immediate death penalty. ”
Congress is more likely to be compliant given that Republicans control both the House and Senate.
President Trump previously announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election, saying, “I intend to seek the death penalty for everyone who sells drugs, and anyone caught selling drugs, for their heinous acts.” said.
President Trump praised then-Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who oversaw the extrajudicial executions of thousands of drug dealers and users during his first term, for doing an “incredible job on the drug problem.” did.
In 1994, then-President Bill Clinton signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, commonly known as the Crime Bill, expanding the federal death penalty to approximately 60 crimes, including nonmurderous espionage, treason, and treason. It includes three types: crime and crime. and large-scale drug trafficking. The bill had support from Republicans and mainstream Democrats like Biden, then a senator, as well as progressives, including Biden, then a member of the House of Representatives. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont).
President Trump’s enthusiastic support for abolishing the death penalty comes amid an international and domestic trend toward abolishing the death penalty. Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have abolished the death penalty, but governors in five other states have put executions on hold. In 2021, the Biden administration’s Department of Justice suspended federal executions.
But Biden failed to achieve his campaign goal of urging Congress to repeal the federal death penalty, and in 2024, executions surged in Republican-controlled states as well.
