Can Donald Trump Reverse Joe Biden’s Death Penalty?

US President Joe Biden has commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 federal death row inmates with just weeks left.

Biden’s move was quickly condemned by Republicans, with some accusing the president of siding with criminals over law-abiding Americans.

Federal executions were relatively rare until Trump’s first term in office, which ended in a flurry of executions that ended a 130-year precedent of suspending executions amid presidential transitions.

He has vowed to restore the practice when he returns to the White House in January, setting the stage for possible court battles early in the administration.

Here’s what we know.

on monday Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 death row inmatescommuting their sentences to life in prison without parole.

Only three inmates have faced the death penalty, including convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Robert Bowers, who was sentenced to death for killing 11 worshipers and wounding seven in the 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh.

A third, Dylann Roof, was sentenced to death in 2017 for the 2015 mass shooting of nine black congregants at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

While the move was widely praised by human rights groups such as Amnesty International, it was quickly condemned by some Republicans as well as Trump’s transition team and political allies.

In a statement, Trump’s communications director Stephen Cheng said, “These are some of the worst killers in the world, and this disgusting decision by Joe Biden is a slap in the face to the victims, their families and their loved ones.

“President Trump stands for the rule of law, which will return when he returns to the White House,” he added. Trump cannot reverse the changes when he returns to the White House next month.

Texas Republican Chip Roy wrote on X that the decision was “dishonest” and an abuse of power “to effectuate a miscarriage of justice.”

Another Republican, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, said that “when given a choice between law-abiding Americans or criminals, Joe Biden and the Democrats choose the criminals every time.”

Some family members also expressed anger.

On Facebook, Heather Turner, whose mother was killed in a 2017 bank robbery, called the replacements a “gross abuse of power.”

“The president did not consider the victims in any way,” she wrote. “He and his supporters have blood on their hands.”

The commutation does not apply to the approximately 2,200 death row inmates sentenced by state courts over which the president has no authority.

During his campaign, Trump promised to restore the federal death penalty and increase the number of people eligible for the death penalty, including those convicted of child rape or drug and human trafficking, as well as migrants who kill US citizens or police officers. .

“These are horrible, horrible, horrible people who are responsible for death, carnage and crime across the country,” Trump said in announcing his 2022 presidential bid.

“We will ask that all drug dealers be caught and receive the death penalty for their nefarious actions,” he added.

There are more than 40 federal laws that could theoretically result in the death penalty, ranging from murders committed in drug-related shootings to genocide.

Almost all – with the exception of espionage and treason – are clearly related to the death of the victim.

Trump, however, gave few details about how he plans to fulfill his campaign promise.

Despite the lack of clarity, Trump’s promises to expand the federal death penalty have drawn serious warnings from human rights activists.

In a Dec. 11 statement, for example, the American Civil Liberties Union said Trump’s “terrible” plans were an extension of “the killing spree he began in the last six months of his first presidency.”

“He has already shown us that he will keep those promises,” the statement said.

Among the inmates executed in the final days of the first Trump administration were Lisa Montgomery, the first woman executed by the federal government since 1953, and Lezmond Mitchell, the only Native American sentenced to federal death row.

American media reports that Trump cannot cancel the replacement of Biden.

Trump’s efforts to extend the death penalty to non-homicide crimes could face legal challenges.

For example, in 2008 the Supreme Court ruled that those convicted of raping children could not be put to death, adding that it was unclear whether the death penalty could be applied to crimes where the victim was not killed.

According to the National Excuse Registry, child victim cases are particularly prone to wrongful convictions, can be “extremely emotional” and pit family members against each other.

Any further expansion of crimes subject to the federal death penalty would require Congressional action and legislative changes.

In 2024, two bills, both sponsored by Florida Republican and Trump ally Anna Paulina Luna, sought to expand the use of capital crimes to include possession of child pornography, as well as trafficking, exploitation and abuse of children.

Both did not pass the House of Representatives.

Trump is also unlikely to be able to quickly reinstate a group of federal death row inmates, as most death penalty cases take years and are subject to lengthy appeals processes.

Although he has no direct authority over state executions, some experts warn that Trump’s pro-death penalty stance could lead to more executions at the state level.

“His rhetoric can and has provoked draconian measures and attitudes from state leaders on a number of issues, including in the context of the criminal justice system,” Yasmin Cader, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union and director of the Trone Center for Justice and Equality, told CNN.

Apart from the federal government and the US military, the death penalty still exists in 27 US states.

A Gallup poll conducted in October found that a narrow majority of Americans – 53% – support the death penalty for convicted murderers, up from 50% a year earlier.