WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his administration will seek the reinstatement of the death penalty for murder cases in the nation's capital, a policy that he has wanted to expand nationwide.
"If somebody kills somebody in the capital, Washington, D.C., we're going to be seeking the death penalty," Trump said during a lengthy Cabinet meeting at the White House.
Trump suggested that such a policy would potentially deter people from committing murder, saying that capital punishment is a "very strong preventative."
"We have no choice. So in D.C. ... if somebody kills somebody ... it's the death penalty," said Trump, who made clear that other states would have to make their individual decisions about the issue.
The president's comment comes amid his administration's aggressive efforts in recent weeks in D.C. to reduce crime in the city by controlling law enforcement activities as well as deploying and arming National Guard troops to patrol the streets.
Even before taking office in January, the president made clear that he wanted to expand the death penalty to more states. On the day he was sworn in, Trump signed an executive order that expressed a desire to augment capital punishment across the country. It directed the attorney general to pursue the death penalty "for all crimes of a severity demanding its use" and to encourage state attorneys general and district attorneys to adopt death penalty-related policies.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, the federal prosecutor in D.C., announced this month that the Department of Justice is considering seeking the death penalty in the case of Elias Rodriguez, who fatally shot two Israeli embassy staffers in May. That case, however, is a federal case and Trump could face obstacles trying to impose the death penalty in other D.C. murder cases.
The U.S. attorney's office and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser's office didn't immediately respond to requests for comment on Trump's death penalty remark.
Overall, crime in the city has decreased by 8% over the last year, including a 15% decline in homicides, according to data collected by the Metropolitan Police Department. Homicides have also dropped from the 20-year high in 2023, which recorded 274 killings, to 102 so far this year.
Trump and the White House have questioned the crime statistics released by the city, and NBC News previously reported that the Justice Department is investigating whether the data was manipulated to make the crime rate appear lower.
According to nonprofit the Death Penalty Information Center, the Supreme Court nullified the death penalty in D.C. in 1972 and the D.C. Council formally repealed it in 1981. D.C. residents later voted in 1992 to not reinstate capital punishment in the city. The organization says 27 states still use the death penalty and 23 states don't have the policy on their books.
While more people have supported the death penalty for those who are convicted of murder in recent years, according to Gallup, the percentage of people who back the policy has dramatically decreased in recent decades and the percentage against it has increased. The most support the death penalty has received in the last 85 years was in 1994, when Gallup recorded 80% as supporting it in murder cases, compared to 16% who didn't favor it.
