President Donald Trump is ordering his attorney general to dramatically reverse Biden-era death penalty policy by seeking capital punishment for all qualifying crimes committed by unlawfully residing immigrants or in which law enforcement officers are murdered.
In an executive order issued Monday, Trump directed what would be a significant expansion on federal pursuit of death penalty, which was only authorized by Biden administration’s Justice Department in one new case.
The order criticizes the Biden DOJ for its moratorium on federal executions and former President Joe Biden personally for sparing the lives of 37 of 40 federal death row inmates.
It orders the attorney general to evaluate those December death penalty commutation recipients—all of whom are now serving life sentences—to ensure they’re “imprisoned in conditions consistent with the monstrosity of their crimes” and to consider referring them for state capital crime charges.
The order also called for the next Justice Department leader to encourage state and local prosecutors to pursue more death penalty cases.
Trump further directed the attorney general to “take all appropriate action to seek the overruling of Supreme Court precedents that limit the authority of State and Federal governments to impose capital punishment.”
Trump’s AG nominee Pam Bondi testified before a Senate panel Jan. 15 and is scheduled to receive an initial vote before the committee Jan. 22. If cleared to the Senate floor, she could be confirmed and arrive to DOJ within the next week.
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