The Continued Political Tug-of-War on Capital Sentencing

Abstract On the heels of President Biden’s last-minute grant of clemency to federal death row prisoners, the Trump administration has ushered in a new wave of pro-death efforts. President Trump’s second term initiated a renewed push for the rise of capital punishment. With the support of pro–death penalty Attorney General Pam Bondi, Trump has directed states to vigorously pursue and enforce the death penalty. In an apparent response to that directive, more states are conducting executions and even experimenting with new (and old) execution methods. Despite a decades-long decline in public support for capital punishment, the political tug-of-war on capital punishment is heating back up.