As the 2024 presidential primary season kicks off, Republican candidates (announced and anticipated) are touting their support for the death penalty amid heightened concern over crime.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) recently signed two bills expanding capital punishment. One eliminates the requirement that juries unanimously recommend death sentences, while the other makes child rape a capital offense, defying a 2008 Supreme Court decision that such a law is unconstitutional. Last month, former vice president Mike Pence told gun enthusiasts at the National Rifle Association’s annual summit that he wanted to expedite the death penalty for “mass shooters.” And former president Donald Trump — who oversaw an unprecedented spate of executions in the final days of his presidency — has vowed to swiftly execute drug dealers if reelected. In private, Trump has reportedly proposed that the federal government bring back group executions and the guillotine, and televise executions, potentially even the grisly footage of inmates’ death throes.
