Trump wants to expand the federal death penalty, setting up legal challenges in 2nd term

4WardEverUK • 16 November 2024

source: NBC News

published: 9 November 2024

Image Credit: Naypong at www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net


Throughout his campaign, President-elect Donald Trump signaled he would resume federal executions if he won and make more people eligible for capital punishment, including child rapists, migrants who kill U.S. citizens and law enforcement officers, and those convicted of drug and human trafficking.


“These are terrible, terrible, horrible people who are responsible for death, carnage and crime all over the country,” Trump said of traffickers when he announced his 2024 candidacy. “We’re going to be asking everyone who sells drugs, gets caught, to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts,” he added.

While it remains unclear how Trump would act to expand the death penalty, anti-death penalty groups and criminal justice reform advocates say they are taking his claims seriously, noting the spree of federal executions that occurred during his first term.

“We’re going to fight this tooth and nail, and we’re going to seek to uphold the constitutional principles that do not call for this expansion,” said Yasmin Cader, an ACLU deputy legal director and the director of its Trone Center for Justice and Equality.


At the tail end of Trump’s first term, 13 federal inmates were put to death — even as the pandemic led states to halt executions because of Covid concerns in prisons. The cases included the first woman executed by the federal government in nearly 70 years; the youngest person based on the age when the crime occurred (18 at the time of his arrest); and the only Native American on federal death row.


Read the full article >

share this article on social media

Black Lives Matter protest
by 4WardEverUK 31 March 2025
From the US to the Democratic Republic of Congo, women and girls’ rights have suffered serious setbacks. Despite the challenges, there also have been improvements and victories.
Hillsborough disaster campaigners
by 4WardEverUK 29 March 2025
On the anniversary of the 1989 disaster [2024] we remembered those who died, through their families’ personal statements about them, as reported by David Conn from the BBC.
Football stadium
by 4WardEverUK 28 March 2025
The promised new Hillsborough Law appears to be in chaos after a meeting between PM Sir Keir Starmer and the families of those unlawfully killed in the 1989 disaster was cancelled.
Brian Haw in attendance @ UFFC rally
by 4WardEverUK 27 March 2025
A statue of peace campaigner Brian Haw has been unveiled in London. Mr Haw camped out in Parliament Square for nearly 10 years to protest against UK and US foreign policy.
Dark prison cell
by 4WardEverUK 26 March 2025
Four more prisoners serving Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences have taken their own lives, taking the total to 94. Another 37 released IPPs took their own lives up to April 2024.
The People’s Tribunal banner
by 4WardEverUK 15 March 2025
With more than 2000 deaths at the hands of the police over the past 50 years there have only been four successful prosecutions that led to officers being convicted and going to prison.
More Articles
Share by: