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President-elect Donald Trump announced plans on Tuesday to “vigorously pursue” capital punishment after President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 37 federal death row inmates. Biden’s decision, which reduced their punishments to life in prison without parole, aimed to align with a moratorium on federal executions, except in cases of terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.
In a series of posts on his Truth Social platform, Trump criticized Biden’s commutations, calling the decision “senseless” and an affront to victims’ families. “Joe Biden just commuted the death sentence on 37 of the worst killers in our country,” Trump wrote. “When you hear the acts of each, you won’t believe that he did this. Relatives and friends are further devastated. They can’t believe this is happening!”
Trump’s Capital Punishment Vision
While federal prosecutors historically operate independently of presidential directives on sentencing, Trump pledged to direct the Department of Justice to pursue the death penalty in cases involving “violent rapists, murderers, and monsters.” However, he provided few details on how he plans to implement this policy.
On the campaign trail, Trump consistently advocated for expanding the federal death penalty, including for crimes such as police killings, drug and human trafficking, and certain cases involving migrants. Legal experts, however, question the feasibility of his proposals under current law.
“Trump has been fairly consistent in wanting to emphasize the death penalty,” said Douglas Berman, a sentencing law expert at Ohio State University. “But whether practically any of that can happen, either under existing law or through new legislation, is a heavy lift.”
Cases Highlighted by Trump
Trump underscored the commutations of two federal inmates with harrowing criminal records. One is Jorge Avila Torrez, a former Marine sentenced to death for the murder of a sailor and the earlier fatal stabbings of two young girls in Illinois. The other, Thomas Steven Sanders, was convicted of kidnapping and killing a 12-year-old girl in Louisiana after murdering her mother in Arizona.
Victims’ families expressed outrage at Biden’s commutations, while advocacy groups like the ACLU and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops applauded the decision as a step toward ending federal executions.
Challenges and Controversies
Trump’s renewed call for capital punishment has reignited debates on its application, particularly in light of evolving public opinion. A recent Gallup poll shows that while about half of Americans support the death penalty for murderers, this figure has declined significantly over the past two decades.
The commutations leave three federal inmates still facing execution: Dylann Roof, convicted of the racist 2015 Charleston church shooting; Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; and Robert Bowers, who killed 11 worshippers in the 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue shooting.
Legal analysts also note that Trump’s proposals, including his mention of the death penalty for rape, would face significant constitutional hurdles.
“Efforts to expand capital punishment to crimes like rape would require overturning longstanding Supreme Court precedent, a process that could take decades,” Berman noted.
As Trump prepares to take office, his plans for capital punishment will likely face both legal challenges and heightened scrutiny, reflecting a broader cultural and legal debate over the future of the federal death penalty.
