President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday he would direct the Department of Justice to pursue the death penalty on the heels of President Biden commuting the sentence of roughly all inmates on federal death row to life without parole.
“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,” he wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday. “We will be a Nation of Law and order again!”
Mr. Biden announced Monday he’s stopping the execution of 37 men — all of whom were convicted of murder. Mr. Trump’s social media post included a screenshot of an article about Mr. Biden’s announcement.
Mr. Biden said in a statement, “Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for their victims of their despicable acts and ache for all families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss. But guided by conscience and my experience … I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level. I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.”
Mr. Biden left three inmates on death row: Robert Bowers, who killed 11 people in 2018 during a shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh; Dylann Roof, who massacred nine Black parishioners in 2015 at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving bomber from the 2013 Boston Marathon massacre.
The president said he didn’t grant those three commuted sentences because their actions were “terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.”
Throughout his campaign, Mr. Trump said he would resume the federal death penalty, something Mr. Biden halted when he took over the White House in 2021.
The Trump team criticized Mr. Biden’s decision, saying the men in prison “are among the worst killers in the world, and this abhorrent decision by Joe Biden is a slap in the face to the victims, their families and their loved ones.”
“President Trump stands for the rule of law, which will return when he is back in the White House after he was elected with a massive mandate from the American people,” Trump communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement.
A group of prosecutors, judges, law enforcement officials and religious leaders wrote letters to Mr. Biden calling for him to commute the sentences of death row inmates before Mr. Trump takes office for the second time.
“The federal death penalty represents a profound failure of our justice system, riddled with inequities and errors that undermine its legitimacy. By commuting the sentences of those on federal death row, President Biden can take decisive action to prevent this deeply flawed system from inflicting further harm,” wrote Bryan Porter, commonwealth’s attorney for Alexandria, Virginia.
A record 13 federal inmates were executed during the last six months of Mr. Trump’s first term.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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