In response to President Trump’s memorandum directing the Attorney General and the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia to fully enforce federal capital punishment laws, Amnesty International USA’s Deputy Director for Research, Justin Mazzola, said:
“This is yet another move and a clear signal that President Trump is once again trying to increase the judicial machinery of death in the United States.
“It is no secret that President Trump supports this cruel practice. During his first term, he ended a decades long hiatus in federal executions, becoming the first president in 17 years to carry out federal death sentences. In the final six months of his first term, amidst a global pandemic, thirteen people were sent to the death chamber in rapid succession in a drive to execute as many people as possible before leaving office. His latest move appears aimed at adding to that horrific legacy.
“This order also goes against the D.C. laws from which the death penalty was abolished in 1981. Similar to President Trump’s deployment of the national guard to D.C., this directive is a continuation of Trump’s pattern of pushing a political agenda rooted in fear, not facts. in Washington, D.C., violent crime is already at its lowest level in 30 years. Let’s be clear: the death penalty does not make us safer. It does not deter crime and we oppose it unconditionally.
“The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment. It is irrevocable, error-prone, and disproportionately harms Black and brown communities.
“This directive is a setback for human rights. In December 2024, former President Biden commuted the death sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row – a critical step toward ending the federal death penalty. Trump’s latest order is an alarming attempt to reverse that progress and increase the number of those the government intends to execute. His contempt for the rule of law is further demonstrated in his administration’s push to punish those whose sentences Biden commuted by transferring them to a remote facility notorious for prolonged and indefinite isolation which amounts to torture.
“The global trend is in the right direction: 113 countries have abolished the death penalty. It is long past time for the United States to follow suit and end this cruel practice on the federal and state levels and commute all death sentences.”
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