President Donald Trump signed an executive order that authorizes the Attorney General to “pursue the death penalty for all crimes of a severity demanding its use.”
“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 reads, explaining that the Attorney General will seek the death penalty in cases regarding the murder of law-enforcement officers and in instances where an illegal immigrant committed a capital crime.
The Attorney General will also see that states allowing capital punishment have a “sufficient supply of drugs needed to carry out lethal injection.”
Former President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 37 prisoners on death row, an action that Trump’s order condemns.
“And on December 23, 2024, President Biden 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.”
“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.