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Thursday 1 November 2018

Under Trump, federal death penalty cases are ticking up

for decades before taking
office, most notably in 1989
when the real estate mag-
nate took out full-page ad-
vertisements in New York
City newspapers urging
elected officials to “BRING
BACK THE DEATH PENALTY”
following the rape of a jog-
ger in Central Park. “If the
punishment is strong,” he
wrote at the time, “the at-
tacks on innocent people
will stop.”
Five Harlem teenagers
were convicted in the Cen-
tral Park case but had their
convictions vacated years
later after another man
confessed to the rape. The
city agreed to pay the so-
called Central Park Five
$41 million more than a de-
cade after their exonera-
tion — a settlement Trump
blasted as “outrageous.”
Polls show a majority of
Americans still back the
death penalty, but support
has been declining in re-
cent years. A 2017 Gallup
In this Dec. 15, 2017 file photo, President Donald Trump, left, appears with Attorney General Jeff Sessions during the FBI National
Academy graduation ceremony in Quantico, Va. poll showed 55 percent of
Associated Press Americans supported the
death penalty for a person
By JIM MUSTIAN eight people on a New with those earlier in the price.” convicted or murder, the
Associated Press York City bike path a year Obama administration un- And he took to Twitter just lowest percentage in 45
NEW YORK (AP) — Before ago; three men charged der Attorney General Eric a day after last year’s Man- years.
a suspect was even pub- in a fatal armored truck Holder, who approved 11 hattan bike path attack to The death penalty remains
licly named, President Don- robbery in New Orleans; capital prosecutions in 2009 call suspect Sayfullo Saipov legal in 30 states, but only a
ald Trump declared that a gang suspect in Detroit and at least 13 in 2012. a “Degenerate Animal” handful regularly conduct
whoever gunned down 11 charged with “murder in And both the Trump and and argue he “SHOULD executions. Texas has ex-
people in a Pittsburgh syna- aid of racketeering”; and Obama administrations GET DEATH PENALTY!” ecuted 108 prisoners since
gogue should “suffer the ul- a man charged with fatally pale in comparison to that Trump also said this year 2010, far more than any
timate price” and that the shooting a tribal police of- of President George W. that capital punishment other state.
death penalty should be ficer in New Mexico on the Bush and his attorney gen- should be used to pros- But such executions on the
brought back “into vogue.” nation’s largest American eral John Ashcroft, who ecute drug traffickers. Ses- federal level have been
Trump has largely gotten Indian reservation. in 2003 alone signed off sions followed a day later rare. The government has
his wish, at least on the fed- The tally could grow higher on capital prosecutions with a memo urging pros- put to death only three
eral level, with death pen- over the next two months against more than three ecutors to seek the death defendants since restoring
alty cases ticking back up as federal prosecutors dozen defendants, at times penalty “for certain drug- the federal death penalty
under his Justice Depart- await Sessions’ decision in overruling his own pros- related crimes,” including in 1988, the most recent
ment after a near-moratori- several other cases, includ- ecutors when they recom- killings occurring during of which occurred in 2003,
um on such prosecutions in ing against the alleged mended against seeking drug trafficking. when Louis Jones was exe-
President Barack Obama’s synagogue shooter, Robert capital punishment. “If we’re to be a nation of cuted for the 1995 kidnap-
last term, when he directed Bowers, who faces federal What makes Trump differ- laws, then the legal process ping, rape and murder of a
a broad review of capital hate crime charges and 11 ent, death penalty experts has to be allowed to play young female soldier.
punishment and issues sur- counts of murder. say, is that he publicly ad- itself out without being sub- In 2014, following a
rounding lethal injection. By comparison, in Obama’s vocates for the ultimate ject to political manipula- botched state execution in
Trump’s attorney gen- final year in office the Jus- punishment in specific cas- tion,” said Robert Dunham, Oklahoma, Obama direct-
eral, Jeff Sessions, has so tice Department autho- es. executive director of the ed the Justice Department
far approved at least a rized just one capital prose- “I think they should very Washington-based Death to conduct a broad review
dozen death penalty pros- cution, that of Dylann Roof, much bring the death pen- Penalty Information Cen- of capital punishment and
ecutions over the past two the white supremacist who alty into vogue,” Trump told ter. “Charging decisions issues surrounding lethal
years, according to court fatally shot nine black peo- reporters Saturday shortly should be made based on injection drugs. It remains
filings tracked by the Feder- ple in 2015 during a church after news came of the the evidence, not based unclear today what came
al Death Penalty Resource service in Charleston, South synagogue shooting. “Any- on politics and not based of that review and whether
Counsel, with cases rang- Carolina. body that does a thing like on political pressure.” it will change the way the
ing from the high profile to But while the Justice De- this to innocent people that The Justice Department did federal government carries
the relatively obscure. partment under Trump has are in temple or in church. not immediately respond out executions.
They include the man increased death penalty We had so many incidents to a request for comment. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons
charged with using a rented prosecutions, the numbers with churches. They should Trump was a vocal propo- did not respond to requests
truck to fatally mow down are not entirely out of line really suffer the ultimate nent of the death penalty for comment.q