Donald Trump (Republican) announced he wants the death penalty for anyone who commits murder in Washington DC, despite the city abolishing capital punishment more than 40 years ago. The president made the declaration during a Tuesday cabinet meeting at the White House.
"Anybody murders something in the capital, capital punishment," Trump told reporters. "If somebody kills somebody in the capital, Washington, D.C., we're going to be seeking the death penalty."
The announcement escalates Trump's federal takeover of the nation's capital, which has entered its third week. Trump declared a "crime emergency" earlier this month to justify his administration seizing control of the city's Metropolitan Police Department.
Death penalty history
Washington DC's city council repealed capital punishment in 1981. When Congress ordered a referendum on the issue in 1992, district voters overwhelmingly rejected reinstating executions.
According to the BBC, DC's death penalty was initially nullified by the Supreme Court in 1972 before the city council's formal repeal. Two dozen other states currently do not carry out capital punishment.
Trump's announcement follows signals from his administration to resume federal executions and aggressively pursue death penalty cases. During his first term, his administration executed 13 people within six months - the most under any president in more than 120 years.
Federal intervention
The president has deployed hundreds of National Guard troops alongside federal law enforcement officers to Washington DC. Only the Daily Mail reports that since the operation began on August 7, authorities have made over 1,000 arrests, detained 300 people on immigration charges, and seized 111 illegal firearms.
Trump claimed the city is overrun with "bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people," though violent crime reports have declined alongside national trends. He described the death penalty as "a very strong preventative."
The president signed an executive order in January directing prosecutors to seek the death penalty for every federal crime involving a killed law enforcement officer and when undocumented immigrants are accused of capital offences. Federal prosecutors are already pursuing death penalty cases against Luigi Mangione for the UnitedHealthcare CEO killing and a member of the Zizians group accused of killing a border officer.
Broader implications
Trump is weighing expanding military deployment to other American cities, with plans to mobilise up to 1,700 National Guard troops across 19 states. The moves represent a significant escalation of federal authority over local jurisdictions.
According to the Mirror, Lisa Montgomery became the first woman executed by the federal government in 67 years during Trump's first term. Three inmates remain on federal death row, including synagogue shooter Robert Gregory Bowers, church shooter Dylann Roof, and Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Sources used: "The Independent", "BBC", "Daily Mail", "Mirror" Note: This article has been edited with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
