{"id":1509800,"date":"2024-12-24T20:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-25T01:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1509800"},"modified":"2024-12-24T20:30:00","modified_gmt":"2024-12-25T01:30:00","slug":"trump-vows-to-expand-death-penalty-after-biden-commutes-37-federal-death-row-sentences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/trump-vows-to-expand-death-penalty-after-biden-commutes-37-federal-death-row-sentences\/1509800\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Vows To Expand Death Penalty After Biden Commutes 37 Federal Death Row Sentences"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trump Vows To Expand Death Penalty After Biden Commutes 37 Federal Death Row Sentences<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

President-elect Donald Trump said on Dec. 24 that he plans to direct the Department of Justice (DOJ) to pursue the death penalty against the worst violent offenders.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

His remarks came a day after outgoing President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 37 death row prisoners to life in prison, including several mass murderers and child killers.<\/p>\n

Trump first criticized Biden\u2019s decision to grant the commutations\u2014in all cases to murder convicts\u2014writing<\/a>\u00a0in a post on Truth Social that relatives and friends of the victims are \u201cfurther devastated\u201d by the move. The president-elect then declared<\/a> in a separate post his intention to prioritize justice for victims of violent crime and broaden the use of capital punishment.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs 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,\u201d Trump wrote in the post. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe will be a Nation of Law and Order again!\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Besides generally signaling a tough-on-crime approach for his administration, Trump\u2019s message suggests he intends to pursue legal reform that would restore the use of the death penalty as a punishment in cases of rape.<\/p>\n

A 1977 decision<\/a> by the U.S. Supreme Court in Coker v. Georgia, however, rendered the death penalty for rape unconstitutional in cases where adult victims survived the assault, further narrowed to include surviving child victims by a ruling<\/a> in Kennedy v. Louisiana in 2008.<\/p>\n

This is not the first time Trump has signaled his intention to expand the use of capital punishment and reverse the moratorium on federal executions imposed by Biden. Throughout his presidential campaign, Trump signaled he would undo the moratorium and make more categories of criminals eligible for capital punishment, including child rapists and drug and human traffickers.<\/p>\n

During Trump\u2019s first term in office, the federal government carried out 13 executions after resuming federal executions in 2020, following a 17-year hiatus.<\/strong> This marked the highest number of federal executions carried out under a single president since the 1950s and reflected Trump\u2019s long-standing pledge to get tough on crime.<\/p>\n

The Biden administration, by contrast, has prioritized a shift away from the death penalty in favor of life sentences without parole for nearly all crimes.<\/p>\n

Biden, in a Monday statement<\/a> explaining his actions, said his commutation decision was driven by a commitment to ending the federal death penalty, which he believes is inconsistent with a just and effective legal system.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese commutations are consistent with the moratorium my Administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder,\u201d <\/strong>Biden said.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMake no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss. But guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Vice President, and now President, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIn good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Biden\u2019s decision to commute the sentences of convicted killers sparked outrage among many conservatives, while the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) celebrated<\/a> the move, pointing out that it aligned with calls<\/a> from more than 130 civil and human rights organizations, faith leaders, exonerees, victims\u2019 family members, and law enforcement officials urging Biden to act on federal death row cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Biden has reaffirmed the power of redemption over retribution and reminds us that state-sanctioned killing does not make us safer,\u201c <\/strong><\/em>Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201dThe ACLU has long advocated against the death penalty and shed light on its fundamental flaws: it is error prone, racially biased, and a drain on public resources.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Critics of the death penalty, including the ACLU, argue that the punishment does not serve as a significant deterrent to violent crime and that the high costs associated with capital trials and prolonged appeals could be better spent on crime prevention and victim support.<\/p>\n

Supporters of capital punishment argue that it serves as ultimate justice for heinous crimes, provides closure to victims\u2019 families, and that the financial burden of executions is a necessary cost to uphold justice and deter would-be offenders.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In his Dec. 23 decision, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 out of 40 death row inmates. The three federal inmates who continue to face execution are 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; Dylann Roof, who fatally shot nine people at a church in South Carolina in 2015; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh\u2019s Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nTue, 12\/24\/2024 – 15:30<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/trump-vows-expand-death-penalty-after-biden-commutes-37-federal-death-row-sentences<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trump Vows To Expand Death Penalty After Biden Commutes 37 Federal Death Row Sentences Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times, President-elect Donald Trump…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1509801,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1509800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1509800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1509801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1509800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1509800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1509800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}