President Donald Trump has said the Justice Department would seek the death penalty in Washington, D.C., homicide cases as part of a broader effort to combat crime in the nation’s capital, a move that would rely on federal authority because the District’s local court system cannot impose capital punishment.
Trump announced the plan during an August Cabinet meeting, saying federal prosecutors would pursue capital sentences for those who kill people in the capital. The president has also issued an executive order in January directing the attorney general to "pursue the death penalty for all crimes of a severity demanding its use," signaling a policy priority for his administration.
Legal experts say the administration’s path forward would not be through the District of Columbia’s Superior Court, which handles local criminal trials and has been barred from imposing the death penalty since the D.C. Council rescinded it in 1981 and D.C. voters rejected it in a 1992 referendum. Instead, federal prosecutions filed in U.S. District Court would allow prosecutors to seek capital punishment where the underlying crime falls under federal law.
Matthew Cavedon, director of the Cato Institute’s Project on Criminal Justice, said the plan would involve the U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuting major crimes in federal court rather than in D.C. Superior Court. The Trump administration has appointed Jeanine Pirro to a leading role in the District's federal prosecutorial apparatus, and Cavedon said the new U.S. attorney would bring such cases in U.S. District Court.
The administration’s announcement follows other actions aimed at curbing crime in the capital. The White House dispatched D.C. National Guard troops earlier in August, and officials said more than 1,600 arrests had been made since the deployment began on Aug. 11.
Legal scholars and criminal justice experts caution that national research has shown little or no correlation between the death penalty and reductions in homicide rates. Cliff Sloan, a Georgetown Law professor who teaches constitutional law and death penalty litigation, noted that the D.C. homicide rate has been declining and said the policy is "unnecessary" as a crime-fighting measure.
"There is absolutely no correlation between the death penalty and a reduction in homicides," Sloan wrote in an email. He pointed to studies showing jurisdictions that have eliminated capital punishment did not see increases in homicide, while some states that actively impose the death penalty have high homicide rates.
Twenty-seven states and the federal government still allow capital punishment; 23 states and the District do not. Several states that retain the death penalty have moratoria on executions imposed by governors. Public support for capital punishment has been waning in recent years, with a Gallup poll in November reporting that 53% of Americans favor the death penalty — the lowest level of support in about five decades.
Supporters of the administration’s stance argue that the possibility of a capital sentence serves as a deterrent for violent crime and provides a severe punishment for the most heinous offenses. Opponents, including some legal scholars and advocacy groups, counter that capital punishment raises constitutional, moral and procedural concerns and point to the declining public backing as evidence of shifting views.
Any effort to change how homicide cases are prosecuted in D.C. would raise legal and political questions. Altering the District’s own prohibition on capital punishment would require action by the D.C. Council or congressional intervention. The administration’s current approach relies instead on federal jurisdiction for certain offenses, a legal pathway that has precedent but that civil liberties groups and local officials may challenge in court.
The White House referred questions about implementation to the president’s remarks at the Cabinet meeting and to the executive order issued in January. The debate over whether federal prosecutors should seek capital punishment in the District is likely to continue as the administration advances its crime agenda and its prosecutors review cases that could be tried in federal court.