Of the many executive orders President Donald Trump issued, one reinstates federal capital punishment.
The order, “Restoring the death penalty and protecting policy safety,” states that capital punishment “is an essential tool for deterring and punishing those who would commit the most heinous crimes and acts of lethal violence against American citizens.”
Capital punishment has long been used in the U.S. as “the ultimate deterrent and only proper punishment for the vilest crimes. Our Founders knew well that only capital punishment can bring justice and restore order in response to such evil,” it states.
Despite this, some politicians and judges who personally oppose it “have defied and subverted” U.S. laws, the order states. “At every turn, they seek to thwart the execution of lawfully imposed capital sentences and choose to enforce their personal beliefs rather than the law.”
In 2021, President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice issued a moratorium on federal executions, “in defiance of his duty to faithfully execute the laws of the United States that provide for capital punishment,” the order states.
With less than a month left in office, on Dec. 23, Biden also “commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 most vile and sadistic rapists, child molesters, and murderers on Federal death row: remorseless criminals who brutalized young children, strangled and drowned their victims, and hunted strangers for sport,” the order states. “He commuted their sentences even though the laws of our Nation have always protected victims by applying capital punishment to barbaric acts like theirs.”
While opponents of the death penalty claim it is unconstitutional, the order says that the Constitution “explicitly acknowledges the legality of capital punishment.”
“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 order states.
“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,” it says.
“It is the policy of the United States to ensure that the laws that authorize capital punishment are respected and faithfully implemented, and to counteract the politicians and judges who subvert the law by obstructing and preventing the execution of capital sentences.”
The order instructs the U.S. attorney general to pursue the death penalty “for all crimes of a severity demanding its use” and where consistent with applicable law, pursue federal jurisdiction to seek the death penalty “regardless of other factors for every federal capital crime involving the murder of a law-enforcement officer; or a capital crime committed by an alien illegally present in this country.”
It also instructs the AG to encourage state attorneys general and district attorneys to bring state capital charges for all capital crimes with special attention to the murder of law enforcement officers or capital crimes committed by illegal foreign nationals.
The AG is also tasked with evaluating the prison conditions of the 37 murderers whose federal death sentences were commuted and take all lawful action to ensure they “are imprisoned in conditions consistent with the monstrosity of their crimes and the threats they pose.” The AG is also tasked with evaluating if they can be charged with state capital crimes and make recommendations to state and local authorities.
The order also instructs the AG to ensure that states that allow capital punishment have “a sufficient supply of drugs needed to carry out lethal injection.”
The AG is also tasked with prosecuting violent crime committed by transnational criminal organizations and violent gangs, including those designated as foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists.
A separate order designates Mexican cartels, the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua, Salvadoran La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), and other organizations as FTOs and SDGTs.
Another executive order tasks the AG and others to protect Americans from foreign terrorists and other public safety threats, and to play a significant role in implementing Trump’s deportation plan, including targeting so-called sanctuary cities, The Center Square reported.
