Attorney General Jeff Sessions is encouraging all U.S. attorneys to pursue the death penalty in certain drug cases, hours after President Trump said this option needs to be considered more.
“I strongly encourage federal prosecutors to use these statutes, when appropriate, to aid in our continuing fight against drug trafficking and the destruction it causes in our nation,” Sessions wrote in a memo sent Tuesday and made public Wednesday.
President Trump brought up the proposal during a speech Monday in New Hampshire in which he rolled out his administration’s new plan to fight opioid abuse.
“If we don’t get tough on the drug dealers, we’re wasting our time,” Trump told the crowd. ”That toughness includes the death penalty.”
Sessions said in his memo that because the opioid epidemic killed more than 64,000 American in 2016, “we cannot continue with business as usual.”
“To combat this deadly epidemic, federal prosecutors must consider every lawful tool at their disposal,” Sessions wrote. “[T]his should also include the pursuit of capital punishment in appropriate cases. Congress has passed several statutes that provide the [Justice Department] with the ability to seek capital punishment for certain drug-related crimes.”
The memo faced immediate opposition from people and groups that oppose the death penalty. Ames Grawert, senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, said there is no evidence that it prevents crime.
“Major traffickers should face serious consequences for their actions, but the administration’s call for the death penalty is beyond the pale. Like unnecessarily long prison sentences, there is no evidence that the death penalty actually prevents crime. It’s an ineffective way to address this problem,” he said in a statement. “Further, by formally endorsing capital punishment for drug kingpins, Trump is embarking once again on an uphill legal battle.”
Jesselyn McCurdy, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union Washington Legislative Office, said the idea of executing drug traffickers won’t hold up in court.
“Drug trafficking is not an offense for which someone can receive the death penalty. The Supreme Court has repeatedly and consistently rejected the use of the death penalty in cases where there has been no murder by the convicted individual,” she said.
