Trump promises the death penalty for “rapists and murderers” after Biden’s pardon Death penalty news

During his first term, Trump oversaw a series of federal executions unprecedented in modern history.

US President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to ramp up the use of the death penalty during his second term, saying he will pursue “rapists, murderers and monsters.”

Trump’s announcement on Tuesday came after the outgoing president Joe Biden Use presidential pardon powers to reduce the sentences of nearly all federal prisoners on death row to life without parole.

“Once inaugurated, I will direct the Department of Justice to aggressively pursue the death penalty to protect American families and children from violent rapists, murderers, and monsters,” Trump said in a social media post. “We will be a nation of law and order again!”

During his first term, Trump resumed federal executions after a nearly 20-year hiatus, and oversaw the executions of… 13 people. This number was higher than any president in modern history.

While people in the United States continue to support death penalty For crimes like murder, that support is at its lowest levels in decades, falling from 80% in favor in 1994 to 53% in 2024, according to Gallup polls. In the same period, the percentage of opposition increased from 16% to 43%.

Proponents say the death penalty can give family members of victims of violent crimes a sense of closure and act as a deterrent against crime although studies have found little evidence of the latter.

“The pain and trauma we have endured over the past seven years is indescribable,” Heather Turner, whose mother was killed during a 2017 bank robbery in Conway, South Carolina, said in a social media post criticizing Biden’s decision.

Opponents say that innocent people are wrongly executed before being exonerated, that the process of executing someone is long and expensive, and that the death penalty is disproportionately applied against people of color.

During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump focused heavily on nationalist attacks on immigrants that portrayed them as dangerous criminals, and said he would do so. Ask for the death penalty For illegal immigrants who commit crimes such as murder and rape against American citizens.

Immigrants commit violent crimes at a lower rate than people born in the United States, immigrant rights groups say Dark tones In Trump’s focus on violence committed by immigrants.

All three federal death row inmates whose sentences Biden chose not to commute were convicted of hate crimes.

they Dylan’s roofwho killed nine black worshipers at Mother Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina in 2015; 2013 Boston Marathon Striker Dzhokar Tsarnaev; And Robert Bowers, who carried out the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in US history when he shot and killed 17 church worshipers. Tree of Life Synagogue In Pittsburgh in 2018, killing 11 people.