US President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to resume executions after taking office next month, the Associated Press reported, quoted by BTA.
The Republican promised to vigorously advocate for the imposition of the harshest punishment when necessary, criticizing President Joe Biden's decision this week to commute the sentences of 37 of the 40 prisoners sentenced to death at the federal level in the United States to life imprisonment. One of the goals of the Democrat, whose term is coming to an end, is to prevent his successor from executing these people, the AP notes.
"Joe Biden just commuted the death sentences of 37 of the worst murderers in our country", Trump wrote on his social network "Truth Social". "When you hear what he did, you won't believe it. It makes no sense. The relatives and friends (of people killed by death row inmates) are even more devastated. They can't believe this is happening!"
The families of some of the victims reacted angrily to the decision of Biden, who at the same time is under pressure from lobbying groups to make it more difficult for Trump to increase the issuance of death sentences at the federal level, the AP summarizes.
The Republican resumed the implementation of such sentences after a nearly 20-year hiatus during his first presidential term from 2017 to 2021. Biden, who ran for president in 2020 on a platform of opposing the death penalty, halted executions of people on federal death row after taking office in January 2021, Reuters reported.