United States President Donald Trump announced yesterday that capital punishment will be sought for all murders in Washington, DC. Source: Catholic Review.
Mr Trump’s comments came amid his federalisation of the police force in the nation’s capital and after he activated the National Guard in what he called an effort to combat crime in Washington.
“Anybody murders something in the capital: capital punishment,” Mr Trump said at a White House Cabinet meeting. “Capital: capital punishment. If somebody kills somebody in the capital, Washington, D.C., we’re going to be seeking the death penalty.”
Mr Trump argued the policy was “preventative,” a claim disputed by death penalty opponents.
Among the first actions of his second term earlier this year, Mr Trump signed an executive order directing the US attorney general to “pursue the death penalty for all crimes of a severity demanding its use” and to “seek the death penalty regardless of other factors for every federal capital crime” that involves the “murder of a law-enforcement officer” or a “capital crime committed by an alien illegally present in this country”.
The Catholic Church’s official magisterium opposes the use of the death penalty as inconsistent with the inherent sanctity of human life, and advocates for the practice’s abolition worldwide.
The late Pope Francis revised the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 2018 to clarify the Church’s teaching that capital punishment is morally “inadmissible” in the modern world and that the Church works with determination for its abolishment worldwide.
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Trump says his administration will pursue capital punishment for all murders in DC (By Kate Scanlon, OSV News via Catholic Review)
