Donald Trump wants the reintroduction of the death penalty in the US capital. What are the legislative levers they can use
Donald Trump. Photo: Schwartz Aaron / CNP / Abaca / Abaca Press / Profimedia
US President Donald Trump promised on Tuesday that the death penalty for any crime committed in Washington DC, the capital of the United States, will be requested, where it was abolished in 1981, AFP reports.
“If someone kills someone in the Capital, Washington DC, we will ask the death penalty. He is strongly discouraging,” said the president on a council of ministers at the White House, saying that “we have no choice.”
The Trump administration will be able to request the capital sentence in cases of crime that can be instrumented at the federal level, not in the local level. But the Republican President could try to modify the legislation in force in the Capital, a traditional democrats. Washington DC is not part of any state and has a party status, the Congress having the right to supervise the city administration.
In 1992, after the assassination of a parliamentary assistant, the Congress imposed a referendum aimed at reintroducing the capital punishment in Washington, but two thirds of the inhabitants voted against.
After returning to the White House in January, Trump signed an executive order aimed at extending the use of this punishment “for the most odious crimes”, and gave instructions to federal prosecutors to draw up such indictments more frequently.
The president's statement on Tuesday joins his campaign to control the order in Washington, a city he considers “invaded by violent bands”. In this regard, Trump ordered the development of the National Guard, some of them now carrying weapons on the streets of the capital.
Trump's soldiers in Washington began to wear weapons / when they are allowed to use force
He asked Monday to the Minister of Defense, Pete Hegseth, to set up a special unit inside the National Guard, responsible for ensuring order and security in the country's capital, and announced the recruitment of additional police and prosecutors in Washington.
The death penalty was abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, and three others – California, Oregon and Pennsylvania – instituted the mills. Three states-Arizona, Ohio and Tennessee-had suspended the executions, but announced their intention to resume them.
