President Trump’s Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi introduced on July 24, 2025 that the Justice Division is suing New York Metropolis over its sanctuary metropolis legal guidelines.
REUTERS/Ken Cedeno/File Picture
President Donald Trump has made capital punishment one of many centerpieces of his felony justice agenda. In an inflammatory government order issued on Jan. 20, the day he took workplace, Trump claimed “that only capital punishment can bring justice,” condemned President Joe Biden’s moratorium on federal executions, and denounced “politicians and judges for defying and subverting the laws of our country.”
Throughout the remaining months of Trump’s first time period in workplace, between July 2020 and January 2021, he oversaw a flurry of 13 federal executions, the final of which occurred simply 5 days earlier than he left workplace. This collection of executions made Trump probably the most prolific “execution president” in over a century and broke with a 130-year-old precedent of pausing federal executions throughout a presidential transition.
Watching Trump’s prosecutors kowtow to his demand for capital punishment is repulsive. U.S. Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi has ordered federal prosecutors in April to hunt the loss of life penalty for Luigi Mangione for the homicide of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The loss of life eligible homicide cost is predicated on a homicide that’s dedicated with the usage of a firearm, which is the case with many murders. Mangione additionally faces separate state fees in New York, which doesn’t have the loss of life penalty. Mangione’s protection crew has argued that the simultaneous state and federal circumstances violate double jeopardy protections, however a New York decide rejected that argument because the circumstances contain totally different authorized theories.
The destiny of individuals charged with homicide in Washington, D.C. is within the fingers of Jeanine Pirro, who has known as herself the “avenger” of victims. Whereas the loss of life penalty is banned beneath D.C. native regulation, federal attorneys can nonetheless search it if fees are filed in a federal courtroom. Pirro, in response to experiences, is planning to invoke the loss of life penalty in two circumstances. One case includes Elias Rodriguez, who has been charged with first-degree homicide and hate crimes for capturing two Israeli embassy staff, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, exterior D.C.’s Capital Jewish Museum in Might. The opposite loss of life penalty is in opposition to Cedae Hardy, who in 2023, throughout a car-jacking spree, killed a Lyft driver and one other individual whom he shot and left dying in a parking zone. Hardy had simply turned 18 when he dedicated the murders. The Biden administration determined to not search capital punishment in Hardy’s case.
There are official causes for caring about Pirro’s use of the loss of life penalty. For instance, on March 21, 1996, Westchester County authorities have been locked in a standoff with a person in Eastchester who had simply shot two cops, one fatally. Tv crews arrived on the scene. Pirro, the Westchester District Legal professional on the time, appeared on the scene. The person had barricaded himself in his grandmother’s home, which contained a working TV. Pirro held a press convention. She said that if the shooter was apprehended, “this appears to be a capital crime — death penalty eligible.” She said that “We will clearly consider the death penalty if the shooter is apprehended.” The gunman killed himself. One might ponder whether Pirro appreciated the recklessness of her statements which can have pushed the gunman to decide on suicide over seize.
Then there was the one capital case Pirro prosecuted. She devotes a prolonged chapter in her guide, “To Punish and Protect: A DA’s Fight Against a System That Coddles Criminals,” to debate the case in addition to the loss of life penalty on the whole. Pirro held a giant press convention to announce that her workplace would search the loss of life penalty in opposition to Dennis Alvarez-Hernandez, who had been indicted for stabbing to loss of life his girlfriend and her two kids. Earlier than deciding to hunt the loss of life penalty, Pirro claims she “had to make sure there wasn’t a history of mental illness or other extenuating circumstances lurking in Alvarez-Hernandez’s past.” Such investigation is important as a result of a jury, in imposing capital punishment, is required to weigh the annoying circumstances in opposition to the mitigating circumstances.
Pirro claims to have completely investigated the defendant’s background in Honduras and concluded that the Alvarez-Hernandez “had been a regular kid” and “had been raised in a relatively functional family.”
However Pirro’s dedication that the defendant was a “regular kid” who “had been raised in a relatively functional family” was terribly mistaken. Certainly, Pirro’s so-called “investigation” seemed to be a sham, and was rapidly rejected by the jury, which though discovering the defendant responsible of homicide, refused to impose capital punishment. The jury discovered the next mitigating elements, which Pirro’s exhaustive “investigation” both didn’t uncover or selected to not reveal.
Dennis witnessed his father beating his mom. When Dennis tried to guard his mom from his father, his father yelled he would kill him, inflicting his mom to take him to stick with his grandmother
Dennis’s father beat him usually and badly, leaving marks.
When Dennis was 9 years outdated, his father emigrated to the USA. At 11 years outdated, Dennis’ mom emigrated to the USA, leaving him with no father or mom.
After his mother and father left, Dennis’s childhood was chaotic and with out continuity of any grownup supervision.
Pirro, relatively than accepting the jury’s end result graciously, and thanking the jury for its service, criticized the end result, which is typical for Pirro. She known as the end result “obscene,” claimed the jury didn’t deliberate lengthy sufficient, and didn’t act in good religion. She additionally claimed the jury wished to terminate their deliberations rapidly “because it was the Friday before the Memorial Day weekend.”
Trump’s demand for extra executions is no surprise. He’s crammed with hate, and ranting about capital punishment makes him really feel powerful. And given the way in which Trump’s prosecutors grovel earlier than him, and the sensationalizing nature of capital punishment, there may be no confidence that the federal loss of life penalty will likely be administered pretty and dispassionately. We will solely hope brave legal professionals and judges stand in the way in which.
Bennett L. Gershman is a distinguished professor on the Elisabeth Haub College of Regulation at Tempo College.
