Trump Directs AG to Fully Implement Death Penalty in Washington, DC

President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on Sept. 25 directing his attorney general to fully implement the death penalty in Washington, D.C.

Signed in the Oval Office on Thursday, the document refers to capital punishment as “an essential part” of the U.S. legal system in deterring and punishing the “most reprehensible crimes that often involve grotesque and lethal violence against innocent Americans.”

It directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to work with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, to “fully enforce” capital punishment in Washington and to pursue 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.”

During the signing ceremony, Trump said the death penalty would be pursued for any murder charges, particularly in any instances where law enforcement officers are killed.

“This is the death penalty for somebody that kills people in Washington, DC,” Trump said. “This is our capital city. We can’t allow that to happen. People come in from Iowa to look at the Lincoln Memorial, and they end up getting killed.”

Trump noted that murder rates are down since his federal takeover of policing the nation’s capital, but said the policy was essential to keep Americans safe.

Bondi said the Trump administration would be seeking the death penalty not just in Washington, but “all over the country again.”

She said the Justice Department is taking the death row inmates whose sentences were commuted by Trump’s predecessor, President Joe Biden, and moving them to “super max facilities where they will be treated like they’re on death row for the rest of their lives.”

Trump first federalized control over the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) on Aug. 11, resulting in the mobilization of hundreds of National Guard troops in the nation’s capital.

The president cited the tripling of carjacking rates and the doubling of car thefts compared to five years ago. The city had seen a record high of homicides in 2023, although the rates have trended down since then, according to MPD crime data.

In his proclamation on Thursday, Trump said his administration had “undertaken numerous successful actions to address the emergency declared and to protect public safety, as a result of which crime in the District of Columbia has fallen dramatically in recent weeks.”

“Faithful implementation of the capital punishment laws will be part of this continuing work,” the proclamation states.

Ryan Morgan contributed to this report.