Why I Changed My Mind About the Death Penalty

After four years, during which former president Joe Biden maintained a moratorium on federal executions—and commuted the sentences of 37 of 40 federal death row inmates—there’s a new, pro–death penalty sheriff in town.

President Donald Trump reversed Biden’s policy on Inauguration Day, and sure enough, two months later the Justice Department said it would seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, the alleged killer of health insurance executive Brian Thompson. The Justice Department is also expected to bring federal hate crime charges this week against Elias Rodriguez, for allegedly gunning down two young Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, that would allow the government to pursue the death penalty. And it has hinted at seeking the death penalty for Vance Boelter, accused of assassinating a state legislator in Minnesota as well as her husband and badly wounding another legislator and his wife.

I’m no Trump fan. He’s made a mockery of federal justice on numerous occasions, most notably by pardoning the January 6 rioters and ordering federal prosecutors to drop a corruption case against New York mayor Eric Adams. But I agree with him on this one.

Deeds such as those for which Mangione, Rodriguez, and Boelter stand accused arguably rank among the “worst of the worst”—crimes so grievous that jurors should have death as a sentencing option. New York, Washington, D.C., and Minnesota do not provide for that, so the only alternative is parallel prosecution under federal laws that contemplate capital punishment for specific crimes.

Support for the death penalty—in certain circumstances—is probably my least popular opinion, at least in the Blue American bastions where I have lived and worked most of my life. Sixty-four percent of liberal Democrats oppose the death penalty (according to a Pew Research survey published in June 2021).