The US President Donald Trump’s latest order directs the attorney general to ensure states have sufficient lethal injection drugs for executions, taking all necessary and lawful actions to facilitate this process.
Trump’s directive, which was issued just hours after he returned to the White House, requires the Justice Department to support the preservation of the death penalty in states that have had difficulty keeping sufficient supplies of lethal injection medicines on hand, in addition to pursuing the death sentence in suitable federal cases.
It was anticipated that Trump will resume federal executions, which had been halted since former Attorney General Merrick Garland placed a moratorium on them in 2021. Democratic President Joe Biden recently commuted 37 of the death row inmates’ sentences to life in prison, leaving just three on federal death row.
In cases involving the death of a law enforcement officer or major crimes “committed by an alien illegally present in this country,” Trump instructed the attorney general to seek federal jurisdiction and the death penalty “regardless of other factors.”
He has also given the attorney general instructions to try to overturn Supreme Court rulings that limit the authority of State and Federal governments to impose the death penalty.
Additionally, he is giving the attorney general instructions to try to overturn Supreme Court rulings that limit the authority of State and Federal governments to impose the death penalty.
The order stated that his administration will not tolerate efforts to stymie and eviscerate the laws that authorize the death penalty against those who commit horrible acts of violence against American citizens.
Trump demanded the death penalty for individuals who were caught selling drugs for their heinous acts. Later, he vowed to put drug and people traffickers to death and even commended China for its more severe drug-trafficking laws.
Trump’s directive follows Garland’s withdrawal of the Justice Department’s federal execution protocol, which permitted pentobarbital fatal injections as a single medication, following a government assessment that expressed concerns about the possibility of “unnecessary pain and suffering.”
James McHenry III, Trump’s new acting attorney general, or Pam Bondi, his choice to head the Justice Department when she is confirmed by the Senate, might enforce the protocol.
Bill Barr, the attorney general during Trump’s first term, replaced the three-drug combination used in the 2000s—the only time federal executions were performed prior to Trump’s administration—with the pentobarbital protocol.
