Trump vows to bring back death penalty in D.C., which abolished it more than 40 years ago

“What Trump is pushing now isn’t justice or safety, it’s a death to democracy itself,” said Jamal Holtz, president of DC Young Democrats.

President Donald Trump said that his administration will seek to bring back the death penalty for all murder cases in Washington, D.C., where capital punishment has been abolished since 1981.

“If somebody kills somebody in the capital, Washington, D.C., we’re going to be seeking the death penalty,” Trump said during an hours-long Cabinet meeting at the White House on Tuesday. The president described capital punishment as “a very strong preventative.” He added, “I don’t know if we’re ready for it in this country, but…we have no choice.”

He added that while states “are going to have to make their own decision,” prosecutors in D.C. would seek the death penalty. The last execution in D.C. was in 1957.

Despite his vow to bring back the death penalty in D.C., there are roadblocks to Trump’s desire to bring back the death penalty in the nation’s capital. Trump’s Department of Justice would only be able to enforce the death penalty for federal crimes. The D.C. Council repealed the death penalty in 1981, and the broad application of capital punishment was nullified by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972. Another limitation to Trump’s pursuit is that juries in D.C. have been reluctant to impose the death sentence, according to Time.

Jamal Holtz, president of DC Young Democrats, slammed President Trump’s vow to reinstate the death penalty in the nation’s capital.

“Since 1981, Washington, D.C. has explicitly outlawed the death penalty, joining 27 other states, including many Republican-led ones, in recognizing that capital punishment is neither effective nor just,” Holtz told theGrio. He continued, “What Trump is pushing now isn’t justice or safety, it’s a death to democracy itself.”

Acknowledging D.C.’s lack of statehood, Holtz said D.C. residents and elected leaders decided on capital punishment decades ago and that “no other community in America has their will so brazenly under siege.”

The D.C. native added, “This isn’t about reviving an ancient ‘safety’ mechanism that doesn’t work; it’s about stripping D.C. residents of the right to govern ourselves and simply bringing death to democracy.”

According to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, capital punishment is disproportionately applied to Black and Latino defendants. The death row population is over 41% Black, even though Black people make up 13% of the U.S. population.

Trump has long called to reinstate the death penalty and made it a feature of his 2024 presidential campaign. On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order urging the implementation of capital punishment when applicable in federal prosecutions, as well as expanded jurisdictions such as the murder of a law enforcement officer or murders committed by undocumented individuals.

Public opinion on the death penalty has significantly shifted over the decades. In 1994, the year the infamous Crime Bill was passed, 80% of Americans surveyed by Gallup supported capital punishment. In 2024, that number declined to 53%.