DJT Resumes and Expands Death Penalty

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Donald Trump signed an executive order resuming use of the federal death penalty, pressing to expand its use and facilitating its use in states.

This ends a moratorium on federal use of the death penalty that was put in place in 2021 by the Biden administration. The Attorney General is ordered to see whether the 37 people for whom Biden commuted federal death sentences can be charged with state capital crimes so a state could execute them instead.

The Attorney General is further ordered “evaluate the places of imprisonment and conditions of confinement” for each of the 37 people with commuted death sentences and make sure their confinement is “consistent with the monstrosity of their crimes and the threats they pose.”

The Attorney General must assist states to continue their executions, taking “all necessary and lawful action to ensure that each state that allows capital punishment has a sufficient supply of drugs needed to carry out lethal injection.”

The order calls for “Overruling of Supreme Court Precedents That Hinder Capital Punishment.” This may refer to Supreme Court rulings that held that said the death penalty for rape would constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Such restrictions go against a Project 2025 goal of applying the death penalty to an expanded range of crimes.

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