Trump signs order seeking death penalty for murder in D.C.
The article reports that President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing top prosecutors to seek the death penalty “in all appropriate cases” for murders committed in Washington, D.C. This move follows an earlier directive to broadly restore the death penalty.Despite D.C. having repealed capital punishment in 1981, Trump’s order instructs Attorney General Pam Bondi and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro to pursue federal jurisdiction for eligible death penalty cases in the capital.
Trump emphasized the seriousness of the punishment, notably for killing law enforcement officers, as part of his broader crime emergency efforts in the city. The order comes after Trump federalized the Metropolitan Police Department due to a surge in violent crime, an emergency measure that has as expired but left National Guard members patrolling the streets.
A White House statement framed the order as a measure to protect residents and visitors by ensuring violent criminals face severe consequences.However,the initiative has faced criticism from groups like the libertarian Cato Institute,which argued that the death penalty is unpopular in D.C. and warned against what they see as federal overreach and harsh policing tactics in the district. The article also noted that the last execution in D.C. occurred in 1957.
Trump signs executive order seeking death penalty for murder in Washington, DC
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday ordering his top prosecutors to seek the death penalty “in all appropriate cases” in Washington, D.C.
The new order succeeds a January directive to use the death penalty more broadly.
“You kill somebody, or if you kill a police officer, a law enforcement officer — death penalty,” Trump said to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday.
“It’s a very interesting capital punishment, capital city. Capital, capital, capital,” he added.
D.C. repealed the death penalty in 1981. Trump’s order instructs Attorney General Pam Bondi and D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro to push the punishment against murderers, and that it serves as a continuation of his crime emergency.
The order says Bondi and Pirro “shall, to the maximum degree practicable, pursue Federal jurisdiction with respect to cases involving crimes committed in the District of Columbia for which the death penalty is available under Federal law.”
When Trump asked Bondi to address the announcement, she said that “not only are we seeking it in Washington, D.C., but all over the country — again.”
A White House fact sheet supports Trump’s enforcement of the death penalty.
“By enforcing the death penalty law against D.C.’s worst offenders, President Trump underscores his determination to protect our Nation’s capital for all Americans who visit and reside there and ensure violent criminals face the toughest consequences under law,” according to a White House fact sheet about the memo.
Trump federalized the Metropolitan Police Department last month, citing an increase in violent crime.
While the federalization order has since expired, hundreds of National Guard members still patrol the capital’s streets. Trump said that D.C. residents “were living in hell,” before the emergency order.
D.C. went 12 days without a homicide after the emergency order, and crime fell. There were also signs that tourism and restaurant business declined during the takeover.
The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, criticized Trump for his death penalty order.
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“There are reasons to think the District of Columbia ranks as one of the most anti-death penalty jurisdictions in the country and that only a small proportion of its people support capital punishment,” they noted.
“[Trump] has already shown his willingness to police Washingtonians using an outside occupation force. It looks like he also wants a very ‘distinct and dwindling minority’—composed partly of his own employees—to condemn them to die,” they added.
The last person D.C. executed for their crimes was Robert Carter in 1957. Carter murdered an off-duty police officer.
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