WASHINGTON, DC – The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) reported that President Donald Trump Monday on his first day in office signed more than two dozen Executive Orders to bring back the federal death penalty.
The DPIC notes the orders instructed the Department of Justice’s Attorney General that the death penalty should be pursued for severe crimes that demand its use including, but not limited to “the killing of a law enforcement officer or capital crime committed by an illegal alien present in this country.”
Additionally, the DPIC said in a statement President Trump has asked the Attorney General to ensure that states with capital punishment have the necessary amount of drugs for executions with legal injections.
The Executive Orders are also said to overrule any U.S. Supreme Court ruling that “limits the authority of state and federal governments to impose capital punishment,” notes the DPIC.
However, the DPIC maintains the Executive Orders ignore the fact that laws would need to be changed by the U.S. Supreme Court to be enacted.
The DPIC adds the Executive Orders ask the Attorney General to take action against the 37 men whose federal death sentences were commuted by former President Joe Biden.
President Trump asked that their prison conditions be consistent with the severity of their crimes and the threats they pose to society, and directed the Attorney General to evaluate if the 37 men can be charged with state-level capital crimes, states the DPIC.
The DPIC suggested, however, the chances that state prosecutors will prosecute crimes which have occurred decades ago is unlikely.
The Executive Orders are said by Trump critics as a rebuke to the Biden Administration’s decision to commute the 37 of 40 prisoners on death row, and the Attorney General Merrick Garland’s calling for a review of execution protocols.
Following these claims, the DPIC stated Attorney General Garland repealed the federal government’s pentobarbital injection protocol and directed the Bureau of Prisons to conduct evaluations on new potential execution manners.
The DPIC insists, in its statement, most drug companies do not supply drugs to prisons for execution purposes, and this is a major reason why Trump has asked the Attorney General to ensure there is access to drugs needed for executions.
The DPIC also adds the public is barred from learning about the sources of drugs being used in executions, which can increase the statistics of “botched” executions because their reliability is questioned.
As a result, the DPIC explained some states have explored alternatives such as death by suffocation with the use of nitrogen hypoxia— “depriving the brain and body of oxygen.”
According to the DPIC, in Trump’s first term, 13 federal executions were carried out during his last six months in office.
