The unhinged US President has deployed uniformed troops in some of the city’s most iconic landmarks, justifying the militarisation by repeatedly lying about crime rates being “the worst ever”
18:50, 26 Aug 2025Updated 18:54, 26 Aug 2025
Washington DC does not have the death penalty(Image: AP)
Donald Trump has demanded Washington DC hold illegal executions in a sinister escalation of his military invasion of the US capital.
The unhinged US President has deployed uniformed troops in some of the city’s most iconic landmarks, justifying the militarisation by repeatedly lying about crime rates being “the worst ever”.
They are not. In fact, violent crime in DC has dramatically dropped over the last two years.
And today he used a televised cabinet meeting to threaten the forced return of capital punishment in the District of Columbia, which abolished the death penalty 43 years ago.
The DC council repealed the District’s capital punishment law in 1981.
Residents of the area voted against reinstating the death penalty in a 1992 referendum.
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But Trump said: “Anybody murders something in the capital – capital punishment.
“Capital, capital punishment. If somebody kills somebody in the capital – Washington DC – we’re going to be seeking the death penalty.”
The death penalty is available to the federal government – as opposed to the District authorities – for some federal crimes, which include first degree murder, murder related to rape or child molestation and murder with other aggravating factors.
It is not available as a blanket punishment for all murders.
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But in practice, historically, it has been very rare for the federal government to execute people – with the exception of Donald Trump.
In 2020, during Trump’s first term, the first federal execution was carried out for 17 years.
In the final seven months of his presidency, Trump oversaw 13 federal executions, more than any president in the preceding 120 years.
They included Lisa Montgomery, the first woman to be executed by the government in 67 years.
The District of Columbia last executed someone in 1957.
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