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President Donald Trump wants to take Return to Washington For those convicted of murder in the area for crimes committed by murder, even though they have been sentenced to death there for decades.
Although the death penalty is prohibited from the use of the death penalty when handling local trial matters in Washington, D.C. and any changes to that level may require intervention from the Washington, D.C. City Council or Congress, the death penalty is legal at the federal level.
As a result, Trump will seek to impose substantial capital punishment in Washington for those convicted of federal crimes, according to Matthew Cabedon, head of the Criminal Justice Program at the Cato Institute.
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E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse in Washington, DC, August 5, 2023. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
“What happened is that in a major crime, the U.S. Department of Justice will prosecute these cases through the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Caveden said. “That’s the new U.S. Attorney Jean Pirro. These cases will be sent to the U.S. District Court … not the DC Superior Court and the DC’s internal court system.”
Trump has made his plan At the August cabinet meeting, the death penalty was restored in Washington’s death penalty while discussing efforts to reduce crime in the U.S. capital. Trump has sent hundreds of National Guards to fight crime in Washington – more than 1,600 arrests since August 11.
“If someone kills someone in the capital Washington, D.C., we’re going to seek the death penalty,” Trump told reporters at an August cabinet meeting. “It’s a very powerful precaution. Everyone who hears it is consistent. I don’t know if we’re ready to be ready in this country, but we have. … We have no choice.”
President Donald Trump attended the Cabinet meeting on August 26, 2025. (Getty Image)
The White House digitized Fox News back to Trump’s comments at a cabinet meeting.
Trump has long expressed support for the death penalty and issued an executive order in January titled “Restore the death penalty and protect public safety.” The order requires the Attorney General to “sent to death for all serious sexual offences required to use”.
“The death penalty is an important tool to stop and punish those who will commit the most heinous crimes and deadly violence against American citizens,” the order said. “Before, during and after the founding of the United States, our cities, states and states have relied on the death penalty as the ultimate deterrent and the only appropriate punishment for the worst crimes.”
Kawiden said the executive order, coupled with Trump’s statements on the matter, suggests he will ask federal prosecutors to seek death penalty in the DC murder case.
District of Columbia Commission formally revoked According to the nonprofit death penalty, the 1981 death penalty and voters in the U.S. capital rejected the death penalty in a 1992 referendum. Washington has not executed the death penalty since 1957.
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People stand outside the governor’s mansion while praying for the death penalty in Oklahoma City on November 30, 2023. (Sarah Phipps/Oklahoma/USA Today Network)
Twenty-seven states still allow death penalty, while 23 states do not. Four states – California, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Oregon – were executed in their states under the orders of their respective governors.
Carveton said Trump’s efforts to revitalize the death penalty could prompt these countries to eliminate it at the state level.
“Things like the president’s call for a large number of executions may be enough to put things into practice and to lift places like California out of state executions,” Caveden said.
Meanwhile, Trump’s efforts are unnecessary as crimes decline in Washington, and studies have always shown that states without death penalty have lower murder rates, and he taught constitutional law and death penalty lawsuits in Georgetown Law.
“This is unnecessary because DC homicide rates have been declining, and even fundamentally, there is absolutely no correlation between the death penalty and the decrease in homicide,” Sloan said in an email to Fox News Digital. “States that have eliminated the death penalty have not seen an increase in homicides. In contrast, states that actively sentence death sentences have a high homicide rate.”
Public support is falling and hitting a five-year low, although most Americans (53%) still suffer death sentences, according to a Gallup poll released in November.
