In a controversial move foreshadowing major shifts in the US justice system, President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to direct the Department of Justice to “vigorously” pursue the death penalty for perpetrators of violent crimes once he takes office in January. The strongly-worded statement comes just one day after outgoing President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 37 out of 40 inmates on federal death row.
Taking to his Truth Social platform, the incoming commander-in-chief declared: “As soon as I am inaugurated next month, I will direct the Justice Department to vigorously pursue the death penalty to protect American families and children from violent rapists, murderers, and monsters.” Trump punctuated the post with the promise, “We will be a Nation of Law and Order again!”
Biden’s Controversial Commutations
While Trump will not have the power to reverse Biden’s eleventh-hour grants of clemency, the commutations have sparked heated debate on both sides of the aisle. The outgoing president, a longtime opponent of capital punishment, spared all but three inmates on federal death row:
- Robert Bowers, convicted for the mass shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue
- Dylann Roof, convicted for the racially-motivated massacre at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston
- Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted for his role in the deadly Boston Marathon bombing
Reactions to Biden’s decision have been mixed. Donnie Oliverio, partner of slain Ohio police officer Bryan Hurst, expressed a measure of closure, stating that his killer’s execution “would have brought me no peace.” But Hurst’s widow Marissa Gibson called the commutation “distressing” and “a complete dismissal and undermining of the federal justice system.”
Victims’ Families Speak Out
Rev. Sharon Risher, who lost several family members in Dylann Roof’s 2015 attack on the Mother Emanuel AME church, urged Biden to “finish the job” by commuting the sentences of Roof and the other two remaining death row inmates. “You can’t rank victims, Mr. President,” the Death Penalty Action board chair told Newsweek. “I am begging you to finish the job, not only with the three men left on federal death row, but also with those on the military death row. There’s still time.”
Trump’s Tough-on-Crime Stance
For his part, Trump wasted no time denouncing his predecessor’s grants of clemency. “Joe Biden just commuted the Death Sentence on 37 of the worst killers in our Country,” he posted shortly after the news broke. “When you hear the acts of each, you won’t believe that he did this. Makes no sense. Relatives and friends are further devastated.”
The president-elect’s vow to “vigorously” seek the death penalty marks a 180-degree turn from the Biden administration’s approach and a return to the tough-on-crime stance that defined Trump’s first term, which saw 13 federal prisoners put to death. With inauguration day fast approaching, all eyes are on how Trump’s Department of Justice will handle capital cases—and what the long-term implications may be for the US criminal justice system writ large.
