One of President Trump's first acts as president, on the afternoon of January 20, 2025, was to sign an Executive Order titled, "Restoring The Death Penalty And Protecting Public Safety." This order decried politicians and judges using their personal discretion to avoid imposing the ultimate penalty. It declared, "It is the policy of the United States to ensure that the laws that authorize capital punishment are respected and faithfully implemented, and to counteract the politicians and judges who subvert the law by obstructing and preventing the execution of capital sentences."
This Executive Order was in direct response to an eleventh-hour rampage by Joe Biden's autopen that commuted the death sentences of "37 of the 40 most vile and sadistic rapists, child molesters, and murderers on Federal death row: remorseless criminals who brutalized young children, strangled and drowned their victims, and hunted strangers for sport. He commuted their sentences even though the laws of our Nation have always protected victims by applying capital punishment to barbaric acts like theirs."
Since that time, Attorney General Pam Bondi has been diligently working to gain control of the situation, but with limited success. When the Department of Justice, acting under the requirements of the Executive Order, examined the approximately 1,400 pending potential death penalty cases, it found all but 459 were too far along to change the existing decision to seek the death penalty. In some cases, the Trump administration's attempts to change course were rebuffed by the presiding judge.
“The government has proceeded hastily in this case, and in doing so has leapfrogged important constitutional and statutory rights,” Trump appointee U.S. Judge Stephanie Gallagher in Maryland wrote in June, striking the notice of intent to seek the death penalty against three alleged MS-13 gang members accused of killing two teenage girls in 2020. “That is unacceptable.”
Similarly, the administration attempted to change direction just two weeks before the case was set to go to trial.
In Nevada, prosecutors notified Cory Spurlock of their intention to seek the death penalty just 12 days before he was set to go on trial for the 2021 deaths of a California couple. Striking down that notice in May, Judge Miranda Du said the government fell far short of justifying its “wholesale reversal at the eleventh hour.” The trial began this week after prosecutors withdrew their appeal of her ruling.
Spurlock, accused of three apparent drug-related murders-for-hire, was nearly freed on bond when Trump prosecutors appealed Judge Du's "no death penalty" ruling.
Both Trump's Executive Order and Bondi's activities call into question why no one is pursuing the low-hanging fruit of capital prisoners convicted by military courts-martial. For unknown reasons, Joe Biden's autopen did not grant clemency to the four men currently on the U.S. military's death row. They are:
- Ronald Gray was convicted in 1988 of the murder of Private Laura Lee Vickery-Clay (18), the attempted rape and murder of Private Mary Ann Lang Nameth (20), and the rape and murder of a civilian, Kimberly Ann Ruggles (23).
- Hasan Akbar was convicted in 2005 of fragging the headquarters sleeping area of the 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne, just before it crossed the border into Kuwait. The attack killed two servicemembers and wounded 14 others. One of those wounded was the brigade commander.
- Timothy Hennis was convicted in 2010 of the 1986 murders of three people in North Carolina. He was tried in state court twice. The first time the conviction was overturned on appeal, the second time he was acquitted. Due to advances in DNA testing, Hennis was recalled to active duty in 2006 after his retirement in 2004 and was subsequently court-martialed. That conviction stuck.
- Nidal Hasan is the Army officer and psychiatrist who was convicted in 2013 for the murders of 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas.
At least two of these guys, Akbar and Hasan, committed crimes while in uniform for the express purpose of aiding the enemy. Gray is a murderer and a sexual predator.
If Trump and Bondi are really serious about the death penalty, instead of wasting time and money relitigating past decisions, why don't they clean off the military death row? There are no questionable convictions there. There hasn't been a military execution since Private John Bennett was hanged on a gallows in the Fort Leavenworth power plant for the rape and attempted murder of an eleven-year-old Austrian girl in 1961. Any of these guys would be a good way to end the drought.
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