Chicago December 25, 2024
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump said on Tuesday he will strongly pursue the death penalty after President Joe Biden changed the sentences of 37 federal death row inmates to life in prison. Biden made this decision partly to block Trump from moving forward with their executions.
Trump criticized Biden’s decision, saying it was disrespectful to the victims’ families. Biden explained that he changed the sentences as part of a policy to stop federal executions, except in cases of terrorism or mass killings driven by hate. U.S. presidents usually don’t get involved in deciding what sentences federal prosecutors ask for, but Trump has pushed for more control over the Justice Department.
Trump said that when he becomes president, he will direct the Justice Department to pursue the death penalty for people convicted of serious crimes like murder and violent rape. He didn’t give details about which cases he would focus on. Before Biden’s decision, there were 40 people on federal death row, but more than 2,000 others are on death row in state prisons.
Some legal experts believe Trump’s statement might be a way to get the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit its ruling on the death penalty for certain crimes. Biden has left three federal death row inmates facing execution: Dylann Roof, who killed nine people in a church; Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; and Robert Bowers, who killed 11 people at a synagogue in 2018.
