In his executive order, the US president slammed his predecessor, Joe Biden, over his failure to “faithfully execute” the country’s laws
US President Donald Trump has voided a moratorium on federal executions imposed by his predecessor, Joe Biden, in 2021. The new head of state published the executive order shortly after his inauguration on Monday. Trump specifically instructed his acting Attorney General James McHenry to seek federal jurisdiction and capital punishment for those found guilty of murdering a law-enforcement officer as well as illegal immigrants convicted of a capital crime.
During the Republican’s first term in office, his administration conducted 13 federal executions – more than under any president in modern history. While on the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly advocated the death penalty for drug dealers.
In the order, the US president mandated that the attorney general “pursue the death penalty for all crimes of a severity demanding its use.” The federal government will also “ensure that each state that allows capital punishment has a sufficient supply of drugs needed to carry out lethal injection.” On top of that, the Trump administration will seek the “overruling of Supreme Court precedents that limit the authority of State and Federal governments to impose capital punishment.”
A large portion of the text is devoted to criticizing Biden as well as other politicians and judges who oppose capital punishment, and “have defied and subverted the laws of our country” to reflect their personal beliefs.
Trump took a swipe at Biden personally over his predecessor’s 2021 decision to issue a moratorium on Federal executions – something that, according to the president, constituted a failure to “faithfully execute the laws of the United States.”
He also lambasted the Democrat for commuting late last month the “sentences of 37 of the 40 most vile and sadistic rapists, child molesters, and murderers on Federal death row” to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Trump instructed the attorney general to ensure that the pardoned convicts are “imprisoned in conditions consistent with the monstrosity of their crimes” as well as to evaluate whether these individuals can be charged with state capital crimes.
Following Biden’s clemency, there currently remain only three inmates on Federal death row.
