OAN Staff Abril Elfi and Brooke Mallory
1:47 PM – Tuesday, August 26, 2025

President Donald Trump announced his intention for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to seek the death penalty in all murder cases occurring in Washington, D.C. He stressed that capital punishment is a “very strong preventative” against crime.

However, this proposal directly challenges the District’s longstanding anti-capital punishment stance, as it has been abolished locally since 1981, and a 1992 referendum overwhelmingly rejected its reinstatement.

Nonetheless, due to the unique federal structure of Washington, D.C., the federal government retains jurisdiction over certain legal matters, including criminal prosecutions — which allows for the possibility of pursuing federal charges and the death penalty in specific cases.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, President Trump made the suggestion during a Cabinet meeting, shortly after the first reported murder occurred in D.C. since his crime crackdown was launched in the jurisdiction.

“Anybody murders something in the capital, capital punishment. Capital punishment,” Trump said. “If somebody kills somebody in the capital, Washington, DC, we’re going to be seeking the death penalty, and that’s a very strong preventative, and everybody that’s heard it agrees with it,” he continued. 

On August 11^th, President Trump issued an executive order invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, transferring control of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) to the federal government.

The move was in response to the District’s ongoing “crime emergency,” officials reiterated.

Washington, D.C., had the fourth-highest homicide rate among major U.S. cities in 2024, with 27.3 homicides per 100,000 residents. This rate was surpassed only by St. Louis (54.4), New Orleans (53.8), and Detroit (32.1), according to the Rochester Institute of Technology.

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