President Donald Trump signed an executive order that instructs his top prosecutors to seek the death penalty “in all appropriate cases” in Washington, D.C.
Trump signed the order Thursday in the Oval Office.
“The Attorney General and the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia shall fully enforce Federal law with respect to capital punishment in the District of Columbia by seeking the death penalty in all appropriate cases where, following full examination of the evidence and other relevant information, the applicable factors justify a sentence of death,” the order said.
It also said the attorney general and the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia shall pursue federal jurisdiction for all cases involving crimes committed in the District of Columbia for which the death penalty is available under federal law.
“You kill somebody, or if you kill a police officer, a law enforcement officer — death penalty,” Trump told reporters.
“It’s a very interesting capital punishment, capital city. That’s right. It’s capital, capital capital. But this is our capital city. We can’t allow that to happen.”
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Trump’s order could lead to similar action elsewhere.
“Not only are we seeking it in Washington D.C., but all over the country again,” Bondi said.
Washington repealed the death penalty in 1981.
Trump last month federalized law enforcement in the district by taking over the Metropolitan Police Department.
The president said D.C. residents “were living in hell” before the emergency order.
A White House fact sheet said Washington, D.C., with a homicide rate of 27.3 per 100,000 residents in 2024, had been among the nation’s most dangerous cities.
Washington went 12 days without a homicide after the president’s emergency order, which since has expired.
Hundreds of National Guard members remain in the capital, the Washington Examiner reported.
“People that work in the White House, every time they see me, young women in particular, [they say] ‘Thank you, sir,’ and I don’t even ask them about what. I know exactly,” Trump said. “Now they’re living in a beautiful glamorous place called Washington DC with no crime, and that’s the way it should be.”
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