US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that restores the active use of the death penalty at the federal level and provides for assistance to states in providing lethal injection drugs.
This was reported by AR News, UNN.
Details
The executive order directs the Department of Justice not only to seek the death penalty in relevant federal cases, but also to support states that face difficulties in securing supplies of executions.
Trump was expected to resume federal executions, which were suspended in 2021 when then-Attorney General Merrick Garland imposed a moratorium. Currently, there are only three inmates on death row in federal prisons, as Joe Biden recently commuted the sentences of 37 prisoners to life imprisonment.
According to Trump's order, the attorney general must seek federal jurisdiction and insist on the death penalty in cases of law enforcement killings or “capital” crimes committed by illegal immigrants, regardless of other factors. The president also called for a review of Supreme Court decisions that limit the ability of states and the federal government to impose the death penalty.
Government's greatest responsibility is to protect its citizens from heinous crimes, and my administration will not tolerate attempts to undermine laws that authorize the death penalty for those who commit brutal acts of violence against Americans
During his first term in office, the Trump administration carried out 13 federal executions - more than any other president in modern US history.
Trump has repeatedly advocated the expansion of the death penalty. When announcing his candidacy for the 2024 election, he called for the execution of drug traffickers. Later, he added human traffickers to the list and even praised China for its tough measures against drug traffickers.
The order comes just days after Merrick Garland overturned the Department of Justice's protocol for lethal injections with the drug pentobarbital. A preliminary review raised concerns about the possible risk of “unnecessary pain and suffering.
However, the Trump administration could reintroduce this protocol under the new acting Attorney General James McHenry III or Trump's nominee for the position, Pam Bondi, after she is confirmed by the Senate.
Pentobarbital, which replaced the three-component mixture of the 2000s, was introduced in Trump's first term by Attorney General William Barr.
Currently, only three people sentenced to death remain in federal prisons:
- Dylann Roof, who killed nine black churchgoers in South Carolina in 2015;
- Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, responsible for the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing;
- Robert Bowers, who shot and killed 11 synagogue members in Pittsburgh in 2018, is the largest anti-Semitic attack in US history.
Recall
US President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO).