Overview

• Will Scharf said the order instructs Attorney General Pam Bondi and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro to pursue capital punishment in eligible Washington cases when the evidence supports it.
• Bondi announced the Justice Department will also seek the death penalty nationwide and plans to move inmates previously taken off death row into maximum-security facilities under death-row conditions.
• Most D.C. homicide cases are handled in Superior Court under local law that prohibits executions, so prosecutors would need federal charges or transfers to seek capital sentences.
• Legal analysts anticipate high-profile litigation testing whether federal prosecutors can impose capital punishment in the District despite its abolition under local law.
• Trump cast the policy as a crime deterrent, cited recent weeks without a homicide in the city, and rejected claims of authoritarianism by saying he is not a dictator.