USA | Donald Trump Appears Confused by His Own Death Penalty Proposal

Donald Trump has appeared to trip up by his own proposals on invoking the death penalty for caught drug dealers, having pardoned someone for drug-dealing offenses while president.

In an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier on Monday, the former president and current Republican frontrunner for 2024 was left momentarily lost for words after being told Alice Johnson would be put to death under his policy. Johnson had her sentence commuted in 2018 and received a full pardon in 2020.

Despite previously calling for "everyone who sells drugs" to receive the death penalty, he then qualified that he thought use of the death penalty in drug-dealing cases "would depend on the severity" of the crimes.

Newsweek approached the Trump campaign via email for comment on Wednesday.

Trump's drug policy has been framed as his response to a growing overdose crisis that has gripped America in recent years, fuelled by waves of fentanyl—a synthetic opioid—and now xylazine—a veterinary tranquilizer.

According to National Institute on Drug Abuse data, there were nearly 107,000 overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2021—more than double the 52,400 recorded in 2015. In that period, synthetic opioids have skyrocketed as a leading cause.

The Republican primary candidate has linked this growing health crisis to troubles the federal government is experiencing policing the southern land border with Mexico. In the 2023 fiscal year so far, border enforcement has seized 164,000 pounds of drugs along the border.

"We will wage war upon the cartels," Trump said during a speech announcing his candidacy for president in November, adding that he would ask Congress to draft a law so that "everyone who sells drugs, gets caught selling drugs, to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts—because it's the only way."

It is not the first time that the former president has espoused such a policy, having done so before his commutation and pardoning of Johnson, who was convicted in 1996 of eight federal counts relating to her role in a cocaine ring in Memphis, Tennessee.

"If we don't get tough on drug dealers, we're wasting our time," he said while still in office in a March 2018 speech on the opioid crisis. "And that toughness includes the death penalty."

In the Fox News interview, after Trump said Johnson was "high quality" and had been treated poorly, Baier replied: "But she'd be killed under your plan."

"Huh?" Trump responded, before Baier added: "As a drug dealer."

"No, no, no, under my plan... Oh, under that?" Trump then continued. "Ah, it would depend on the severity."

Later in the discussion, the former president stressed that Johnson "wouldn't be killed" as his policy "would start as of now," rather than applying retrospectively.

On his campaign website, Trump vows to "take down the drug cartels" by asking Congress "to ensure that drug smugglers and traffickers can receive the death penalty." In 2018, he stated the punishment would be targeted at the "big pushers, the ones who are really killing people."

Johnson's clemency was lobbied for by Kim Kardashian, who met with the then-president in the Oval Office to discuss the issue on May 30, 2018.

A week later, Trump commuted the remainder of Johnson's life sentence after 21 years in jail, before issuing her with a full pardon in August 2020.

Source: Newsweek, A. Phillips, June 21, 2023

_____________________________________________________________________

FOLLOW US ON:

CONTACT: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

Singapore executes three drug mules over two days

Singapore hanged three people for drug offences last week, bringing the total number of executions to 17 this year - the highest since 2003. These come a week before a constitutional challenge against the death penalty for drug offences is due to be heard. Singapore has some of the world's harshest anti-drug laws, which it says are a necessary deterrent to drug crime, a major issue elsewhere in South East Asia. Anyone convicted of trafficking - which includes selling, giving, transporting or administering - more than 15g of diamorphine, 30g of cocaine, 250g of methamphetamine and 500g of cannabis in Singapore will be handed the death sentence.

Florida | After nearly 50 years on death row, Tommy Zeigler seeks final chance at freedom

The Winter Garden Police chief was at a party on Christmas Eve 1975 when he received a phone call from his friend Tommy Zeigler, the owner of a furniture store on Dillard Street. “I’ve been shot, please hurry,” Zeigler told the chief as he struggled for breath. When police arrived at the store, Zeigler, 30, managed to unlock the door and then collapsed “with a gaping bullet hole through his lower abdomen,” court records show. In the store, detectives found a gruesome, bloody crime scene and several guns. Four other people — Zeigler’s wife, his in-laws and a laborer — lay dead.

Louisiana death row inmate freed after nearly 30 years as overturned conviction upends case

A Louisiana man who spent nearly 30 years on death row walked out of prison Wednesday after a judge overturned his conviction and granted him bail. Jimmie Duncan, now in his 60s, was sentenced to death in 1998 for the alleged rape and drowning of his girlfriend’s 23-month-old daughter, Haley Oliveaux — a case long clouded by disputed forensic testimony. His release comes months after a state judge ruled that the evidence prosecutors used to secure the conviction was unreliable and rooted in discredited bite-mark analysis.

Oklahoma board recommends clemency for inmate set to be executed next week

A voting board in Oklahoma decided Wednesday to recommend clemency for Tremane Wood, a death row inmate who is scheduled to receive a lethal injection next week at the state penitentiary in McAlester. Wood, 46, faces execution for his conviction in the 2001 murder of Ronnie Wipf, a migrant farmworker, at an Oklahoma City hotel on New Year's Eve, court records show. The recommendation was decided in a 3-2 vote by the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, consisting of five members appointed by either the governor or the state's top judicial official, according to CBS News affiliate KWTV. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Sitt will consider the recommendation as he weighs whether to grant or deny Wood's clemency request, which would mean sparing him from execution and reducing his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Vietnam | Woman sentenced to death for poisoning 4 family members with cyanide

A woman in Dong Nai Province in southern Vietnam was sentenced to death on Thursday for killing family members including two young children in a series of cyanide poisonings that shocked her community. The Dong Nai People's Court found 39-year-old Nguyen Thi Hong Bich guilty of murder and of illegally possessing and using toxic chemicals. Judges described her actions as "cold-blooded, inhumane and calculated," saying Bich exploited the trust of her victims and "destroyed every ethical bond within her family."

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers carry out public execution in sports stadium

The man had been convicted of killing 13 members of a family, including children, and was executed by one of their relatives, according to police. Afghanistan's Taliban authorities carried out the public execution of a man on Tuesday convicted of killing 13 members of a family, including several children, earlier this year. Tens of thousands of people attended the execution at a sports stadium in the eastern city of Khost, which the Supreme Court said was the eleventh since the Taliban seized power in 2021 in the wake of the chaotic withdrawal of US and NATO forces.

Afghanistan | Two Sons Of Executed Man Also Face Death Penalty, Says Taliban

The Taliban governor’s spokesperson in Khost said on Tuesday that two sons of a man executed earlier that day have also been sentenced to death. Their executions, he said, have been postponed because the heir of the victims is not currently in Afghanistan. Mostaghfer Gurbaz, spokesperson for the Taliban governor in Khost, also released details of the charges against the man executed on Tuesday, identified as Mangal. He said Mangal was accused of killing members of a family.

Utah | Ralph Menzies dies on death row less than 3 months after his execution was called off

Judge was set to consider arguments in December about Menzies’ mental fitness Ralph Menzies, who spent more than 3 decades on Utah’s death row for the 1986 murder of Maurine Hunsaker, has died. Menzies, 67, died of “presumed natural causes at a local hospital” Wednesday afternoon, according to the Utah Department of Corrections. Matt Hunsaker, Maurine Hunsaker’s son, said Menzies’ death “was a complete surprise.” “First off, I’d say that I’m numb. And second off, I would say, grateful,” Hunsaker told Utah News Dispatch. “I’m grateful that my family does not have to endure this for the holidays.”

Iran carries out public hanging of "double-rapist"

Iran on Tuesday publicly executed a man after convicting him of raping two women in the northern province of Semnan. The execution was carried out in the town of Bastam after the Supreme Court upheld the verdict, the judiciary's official outlet Mizan Online reported. Mizan cited the head of the provincial judiciary, Mohammad Akbari, as saying the ruling had been 'confirmed and enforced after precise review by the Supreme Court'. The provincial authority said the man had 'deceived two women and committed rape by force and coercion', adding that he used 'intimidation and threats' to instil fear of reputational harm in the victims.

Kuwait | New Anti-Drug Law Introduces Death Penalty, Surprise Testing, and Strict Enforcement

KUWAIT CITY, Nov 26: Divorce rates in Kuwait are rising, with recent statistics indicating that addiction—particularly among wives—has become a significant contributing factor. In response, authorities are preparing to introduce surprise premarital drug testing as part of a broader set of reforms under Kuwait’s new drug law. The countdown has officially begun for the enforcement of this new legislation, which was drafted by a judicial committee formed by the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, Sheikh Fahd Al-Yousef. The committee is headed by Counselor Mohammed Rashid Al-Duaij.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog