President-elect Donald Trump has promised to expand the list of charges that would make a convicted offender eligible for federal execution to include child rapists, illegal immigrants who kill U.S. citizens and police, 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 stated in November of 2022 when he announced his candidacy. “We’re going to be asking everyone who sells drugs, gets caught, to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts,” he added.
Trump has long positioned himself as a border hawk and has promised he will overhaul the federal justice system to increase penalties for migrant crime. Two days before reclaiming the White House, Trump spoke at a campaign rally in Macon, Georgia where he called for the death penalty for illegal immigrants who murder U.S. citizens.
"Mimi Ramirez-Rodriguez was kidnapped and murdered by an illegal alien - leaving behind a 9-year-old girl. I met her grieving mom Carmen tonight in Georgia. With your vote Tuesday, we will end Kamala’s invasion, and we will not allow illegals to spill one more drop of American blood,” Trump posted.
Although Trump still has many legal and legislative maneuvers before such changes could be implemented, opponents of the death penalty are taking his promises seriously. Yasmin Cader, and ACLU deputy legal director told NBC News, “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.”
The outlet noted there were 13 federal executions under Trump’s first term in office, the most since the 1800s under Grover Cleveland and the first since former President George W. Bush in 2003.
According to the nonpartisan Death Penalty Information Center, there are currently 40 federal death row inmates, all of whom are men. Under President Joe Biden, the government has not sought the death penalty in any federal cases and has withdrawn the punishment in close to two dozen. Yet, opponents feel all of those efforts will be in vain with Trump back in office.
“What we know is that he’s already shown us that he will act on these promises,” Cader added.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.