(TheRedAlertNews.com) – In a bold new policy step from the future Trump administration, President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to overturn President Biden’s federal execution moratorium and broaden the death penalty’s scope.
His proposed changes aim to include child rapists, immigrants who commit murder, human traffickers, and drug dealers, drawing support from some quarters and strong opposition from others.
Donald Trump’s proposed expansion challenges existing laws and norms.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that executing child rapists, where death did not occur, was unconstitutional.
Nonetheless, states like Florida and Tennessee seek to challenge this ruling.
Trump’s aggressive stance on capital punishment is consistent with his earlier actions when his administration executed 13 federal inmates in his final months in office.
Since 1988, federal authorities have executed 16 people.
Under Biden, a moratorium halted federal executions, intending to review Trump’s administration’s methods, which included using electrocution, nitrogen gas, and firing squads.
Anti-death penalty groups and legal experts have voiced their concerns, highlighting past wrongful convictions and potential racial disparities.
“President-elect Donald Trump said during his campaign he would like to expand the death penalty to include child rapists, immigrants who kill U.S. citizens and police officers, human traffickers and drug dealers,” the Trump campaign said.
While Trump’s administration would need Congress to alter laws for his plans, the current conservative Supreme Court might not oppose such changes.
However, this expansion would be unprecedented in the western world, especially concerning drug and human trafficking crimes.
The potential reinstatement of Trump-era protocols overlooks the systemic concerns voiced by many legal experts and organizations like the ACLU.
The Justice Department under Biden abstained from pursuing the death penalty in federal cases, with potential legal battles on the horizon as Trump seeks to revive these policies.
Meanwhile, Biden has the preventive option of commuting sentences to life imprisonment, which could foil Trump’s plans before his presidency begins.
“The death penalty for drug and human trafficking would be unprecedented in the western world,” commented Matt Mangino, a former district attorney for Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, and an expert on capital punishment, cited by Fox News.
Concerns about racial disparities and wrongful convictions loom large, especially in cases regarding child sexual assaults, which Trump wants to add to the death penalty list.
As Trump moves forward with these plans, the American public remains divided on the issue, and his administration faces both legal challenges and the moral question of expanding state-sanctioned executions.
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