U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaks at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., December 22, 2024. REUTERS/Cheney Orr/File Photo
President-elect Donald Trump has announced plans to direct the Justice Department to “vigorously pursue” the death penalty for violent offenders, including rapists and murderers, upon taking office on January 20, 2025. This statement follows President Joe Biden’s recent commutation of 37 federal death row inmates’ sentences to life imprisonment without parole.
During his first term from 2017 to 2021, Trump reinstated federal executions after a nearly 20-year hiatus. In contrast, President Biden, who opposes the death penalty, paused federal executions upon assuming office in January 2021. Biden’s recent commutations, announced shortly before Christmas, have elicited mixed reactions. Some victims’ families have expressed outrage, feeling that justice has been undermined, while opponents of the death penalty have praised the move as a moral stance.
Trump’s commitment to reinstating the death penalty underscores a significant policy divergence between the incoming and outgoing administrations regarding capital punishment. While Biden’s commutations are irreversible, Trump’s administration can influence future federal death penalty cases by actively seeking capital punishment in new prosecutions.
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