in effect
This is Executive Order 14164, signed January 20, 2025 and published in the Federal Register on January 30, 2025. It is a presidential directive instructing the Attorney General and the Department of Justice to actively use and defend the death penalty. It reverses the prior administration’s approach, which had paused federal executions.
The Attorney General is directed to seek the death penalty for serious federal crimes, and to specifically pursue federal jurisdiction and capital charges in two categories: the murder of a law-enforcement officer, and capital crimes committed by someone in the country illegally. The DOJ’s internal rulebook (the Justice Manual) is to be revised to match this policy, and the Attorney General is told to review the prison conditions of the 37 people whose federal death sentences President Biden commuted on December 23, 2024, and to look into whether they can face state capital charges. The order also directs the Attorney General to help states that use capital punishment obtain lethal-injection drugs, to act on pending state certification requests under 28 U.S.C. 2265, and to seek the overruling of Supreme Court precedents that limit the death penalty. It further tells federal law enforcement to prioritize violent-crime prosecutions and to work with state and local authorities against transnational criminal activity. The order sets no specific dollar amounts or deadlines, and states it must be carried out consistent with existing law and available funding.
It directly tasks the Attorney General and the Department of Justice, and it asks (but does not compel) state attorneys general and district attorneys to bring their own capital charges. It specifically names the 37 individuals whose federal death sentences were commuted, whose confinement conditions and possible state charges are to be reviewed. States that permit capital punishment are affected through the federal assistance offered for lethal-injection drugs and certification requests.