Trump wants to expand the federal death penalty, setting up legal challenges in second term
Throughout his campaign,
President-elect Donald Trump
signaled he would resume federal executions if he won and make more people eligible for capital punishment, including child rapists,
migrants who kill U.S. citizens
and law enforcement officers, and those convicted of drug and human trafficking.
“These are terrible, terrible, horrible people who are responsible for death, carnage and crime all over the country,”
Trump said
of traffickers when he announced his 2024 candidacy. “We’re going to be asking everyone who sells drugs, gets caught, to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts,” he added.
While it remains unclear how Trump would act to expand the death penalty, anti-death penalty groups and criminal justice reform advocates say they are taking his...