2024 GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump outlined his plan to lift the Justice Department’s current moratorium on the federal death penalty if he wins reelection. Trump emphasized that the death penalty should be reinstated for crimes such as killing police officers, pedophilia, and for “major drug dealers,” making it a top priority for his administration.
“Of course, I would. I would have executions for major drug dealers,” Trump told the DailyMail. “I would have, perhaps, the raping of a child, the killing of a police officer. I would have executions for people who violently kill others.”
During his first term, Trump reinstated the federal death penalty in 2019, leading to 13 federal executions before President Joe Biden’s Attorney General, Merrick Garland, imposed a moratorium in 2021.
Last week, while visiting the U.S.-Mexico border, Trump issued a stern warning to drug dealers linked to fentanyl overdose deaths, stating they should face capital punishment for their deadly crimes. “The average drug dealer kills 500 people during their lifetime. I would have no problem with that. If you’re going to stop the drug epidemic, you’re going to have to have a death penalty,” Trump said.
Currently, 27 of the 50 states uphold capital punishment, while seven have suspended executions. During Kamala Harris’s 2004 inauguration speech as San Francisco’s district attorney, she vowed to “never charge the death penalty.” However, Harris reversed her stance in 2010 while running for California’s attorney general, later stating that she would “enforce the death penalty as the law dictates.”
