Trump says DoJ will ‘vigorously’ pursue death penalty after Biden commutations
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Trump can’t reverse commutations of 37 people but says US will be ‘Nation of Law and Order’ when he is inaugurated. Donald Trump has said he will direct the justice department to “vigorously” pursue the death penalty for the perpetrators of violent crimes, one day after Joe Biden commuted the death sentences of most prisoners on the federal government’s death row.
In a post on Truth Social, the president-elect said as soon as he is inaugurated next month, he “will direct the Justice Department to vigorously pursue the death penalty to protect American families and children from violent rapists, murderers, and monsters”.
“We will be a Nation of Law and Order again!” Trump added. Trump will not be able to reverse Biden’s recent commutations, which extended to 37 federal death row prisoners but left three capital sentences intact. Those three are for Robert Bowers, convicted for the mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue; Dylann Roof, convicted of the shooting at the Mother Emanuel AME church; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted for the Boston Marathon bombing.
Opponents of the death penalty praised the president’s decision, while others criticized the move. Donnie Oliverio, the partner of Bryan Hurst, an Ohio police officer who was killed by a prisoner whose death sentence was commuted, said his killer’s execution “would have brought me no peace”.
