Trump Pledges to 'Vigorously Pursue the Death Penalty'

Republican U.S. President-elect Donald Trump vowed Tuesday that his administration will "vigorously" use capital punishment as part of his "make America safe again" agenda, despite copious evidence that the death penalty does not deter crime, is racially biased, and results in wrongful executions.

Responding to Democratic President Joe Biden's Monday commutation of 37 federal death sentences—an action that cannot be reversed—Trump took to his Truth Social platform to condemn the move.

"Joe Biden just commuted the Death Sentence on 37 of the worst killers in our Country," Trump fumed. "When you hear the acts of each, you won't believe that he did this. Makes no sense. Relatives and friends are further devastated. They can't believe this is happening!"

"As soon as I am inaugurated, 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 said in a separate Truth Social post. "We will be a Nation of Law and Order again!"

ACLU executive director Anthony Romero called Biden's move "the most consequential step of any president in our history to address the immoral and unconstitutional harms of capital punishment" and a bulwark against Trump, who "has a proven penchant and track record of conducting rushed executions."

"In the last six months of his first term, President Trump executed 13 individuals—more than any administration in 120 years," Romero noted.

Death penalty foes are particularly worried about Trump's campaign promise to seek federal death sentences for crimes other than murder.

"When I am back in the White House, I will immediately end the Biden border nightmare that traffickers are using to exploit vulnerable women and children," Trump said in July 2023. "I will urge Congress to ensure that anyone caught trafficking children across our border receives the death penalty immediately."

There is a higher likelihood of a compliant Congress given Republicans will control both the Senate and House of Representatives.

"We're going to be asking everyone who sells drugs, gets caught selling drugs, to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts," Trump said earlier while announcing his 2024 run for president.

During his first term, Trump praised then-Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, who oversaw the extrajudicial execution of thousands of drug dealers and users, for doing "an unbelievable job on the drug problem."

In 1994, then-President Bill Clinton signed into law the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act—commonly known as the Crime Bill—which expanded the federal death penalty to approximately 60 crimes, including three that do not involve murder: espionage, treason, and large-scale drug trafficking. In addition to Republicans and mainstream Democrats like Biden, then a senator, the legislation had the support of progressives including then-Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Trump's enthusiastic embrace of capital punishment comes amid an international and national trend toward abolition. Twenty-three U.S. states and the District of Columbia have abolished the death penalty, while five other states have gubernatorial holds on executions. In 2021, Biden's Justice Department paused federal executions.

However, Biden never succeeded in his campaign goal of pushing Congress to end the federal death penalty and 2024 also saw a surge in executions in Republican-controlled states.