U.S. President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office during an event to sign an executive order, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 25, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump announced that he would bring back the death penalty in Washington, D.C. The random comment will likely disappear into the political ether as Trump doesn't have the authority to do it, according to one expert on Thursday.
The District had a Congress-ordered referendum vote in 1992, and voters refused to reinstate the death penalty.
University of Baltimore Law School Professor Kim Wehle, wrote in a legal analysis for The Bulwark that her "perusal of the law makes clear that Trump’s talk of the 'death penalty' is an empty threat intended, like so much of his rhetoric and policies, to incite fear. Even King Trump lacks the power to start executing people for (local) homicides in Washington, D.C."
Jeanine Pirro, a former Fox News personality and current U.S. attorney for the District, could bring charges for capital offenses, wrote Wehle, but under the 60 federal crimes outlined in the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994, regular homicide in D.C. isn't one of them.
"Bear in mind that, in general, federal (meaning nationwide) laws enacted by Congress must have something about them that transcends local matters that impact only the individual states. Murders of diplomats, or at international airports, or on the high seas, or in connection with interstate drug trafficking, or at a federal facility would all qualify for a possible death sentence under federal law," she explained.
However, everyday crimes that unfold in a large city don't fall under those standards. The only way Pirro and Attorney General Pam Bondi could carry out Trump's demand for the death penalty in all D.C. homicides would be to somehow tie it to happening in a federal facility, federal park, museum, etc. That's not where most murders happen, however.
It only adds to the list of failures for Pirro since taking office. She's spent the past several weeks attempting to charge Washingtonians with felony assault charges and other serious charges for minor infractions. Multiple grand juries have turned her down.