Restoring the Death Penalty and Protecting Public Safety
This executive order, titled Restoring the Death Penalty and Protecting Public Safety, directs federal agencies to aggressively pursue capital punishment and to remove legal obstacles that the administration claims have hindered its use. The order declares a policy to faithfully implement capital punishment, expands the circumstances under which the federal government will seek the death penalty, and calls on state prosecutors to pursue capital charges in relevant cases. It also instructs the Attorney General to take steps to ensure states have access to lethal-injection drugs, consider reworking certain Supreme Court precedents, and prioritize public safety and the prosecution of violent, transnational, and other serious crimes. Additionally, it asks the Attorney General to reassess certain federal death-row inmates whose sentences were commuted by the previous administration and to explore potential state-facing actions. The order emphasizes a return to a hardline stance on capital punishment and promises closer federal-state coordination on behalf of public safety. Potential impacts include a more aggressive federal pursuit of capital punishment, added pressure on state capital cases, potential legal and constitutional challenges to precedents (and the government’s attempts to overturn them), and increased focus on criminal justice policy around the death penalty, drug supply for lethal injections, and coordination with local law enforcement. The order does not itself create new rights or guarantees, but it would shape prosecutorial and administrative priorities and resources if implemented.
Key Points
- 1Federal capital punishment expansion (Sec. 3): The Attorney General is directed to pursue the death penalty for all crimes deemed severe enough to warrant it, and, where consistent with law, to seek the death penalty for federal capital crimes involving (i) the murder of a law-enforcement officer, or (ii) a capital crime committed by an alien illegally present in the United States. The AG should also push state prosecutors to bring state capital charges in relevant cases, even if the federal trial does not result in a death sentence.
- 2Justice Manual and oversight (Sec. 3(d)-(e)): The Attorney General is to modify the Justice Manual to reflect these priorities and to evaluate the treatment and confinement of the 37 federal death-row inmates whose sentences were commuted by the previous administration, with consideration given to pursuing state capital charges where appropriate.
- 3State incident support: The order urges federal action to ensure states have a sufficient supply of lethal-injection drugs and to review pending state certification requests under 28 U.S.C. 2265, reinforcing the federal role in supporting state capital punishment processes.
- 4Constitutional precedents and legal strategy (Sec. 5): The Attorney General is instructed to seek overruling of Supreme Court precedents that “limit the authority” to impose capital punishment, signaling an active legal strategy to expand death-penalty authority.
- 5Public safety and transnational crime focus (Sec. 6): The Attorney General is directed to prioritize public safety, prosecution of violent crime, and dismantling transnational criminal activity, with encouragement for state and local cooperation to align enforcement policies with these goals.
- 6General provisions (Sec. 7): The order preserves the authorities of executive agencies and notes that implementation is subject to applicable law and appropriations, and it explicitly states that the order does not create enforceable rights.