"Law and order"

Trump advocates the implementation of the death penalty

"We will once again be a country of law and order," Trump promises American families.(Bild: AP, Krone KREATIV)

US President-elect Donald Trump has strongly condemned the decision by incumbent Joe Biden to commute the death sentences of criminals to life imprisonment. Immediately after taking office in January, he will campaign for a vigorous implementation of the death penalty.

His approach should protect "American families and children from violent rapists, murderers and monsters". "We will once again be a country of law and order," Trump said (see Truth Social article below). 

Biden had commuted the sentences of 37 out of 40 federal prisoners sentenced to death to life in prison without parole in an act of clemency on Monday. This cannot be reversed by his successor Trump and will therefore thwart his earlier announcement to increase the number of executions after he takes office on January 20.

(Bild: truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump)

Trump had resumed executions at federal level during his first term of office from 2017 to 2021 after they had been suspended for almost 20 years. Biden, on the other hand, suspended them again after taking office in 2021.

"We will be a country of law and order again," Trump promises American families.(Bild: AP, Krone KREATIV)

Pressure on Trump
In recent weeks, Biden has come under pressure from his fellow Democrats, human rights activists and religious leaders such as Pope Francis to commute federal death sentences before taking office in early 2025.

Biden excluded cases of terrorism or hate-motivated mass murder from his pardon. These include Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was convicted for his involvement in the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, Dylann Roof, for the rampage at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, and Robert Bowers, who was convicted for the attack on a synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.

Biden's pardon has no effect on the nearly 2,200 death row inmates sentenced by state courts in the US, as a US president has no authority to access them.