Time - President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his Administration will move to reinstate the death penalty in all murder cases in Washington, D.C., his latest effort to crack down on crime and exert more federal control over the nation’s capital.
“If somebody kills somebody in the capital, Washington, D.C., we’re going to be seeking the death penalty,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, describing capital punishment as “a very strong preventative.” He added that while states “are going to have to make their own decision,” prosecutors in D.C. would seek the death penalty. “We have no choice,” he said.
The announcement came without detailed guidance on how it would be carried out. The last execution in the District of Columbia took place in 1957. Most homicides in Washington, D.C. are charged under the local criminal code and tried in D.C. Superior Court, where capital punishment is not authorized. The District’s elected leaders abolished the death penalty in 1981, and residents rejected restoring it in a 1992 referendum by a wide margin.
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