Judges need wiggle room when it comes to sentencing. Each case is different from the next and has mitigating and aggravating circumstances that must be taken into account if justice is to be served. And when the price of making the wrong call is the state executing an innocent? Well, if the death penalty is on the table you’d better be sure beyond any reasonable doubt.
So it’s disquieting that, in his presidential address to Congress, Donald Trump announced that he’d signed an executive order enforcing a “mandatory death sentence” for anyone convicted of murdering a police officer. Republicans, naturally, launched into thunderous applause.
Pres. Trump says he has signed an executive order requiring a "mandatory death penalty" for "anyone who murders a police officer" and is asking Congress to pass that policy into law. https://t.co/yKITJOtHSb pic.twitter.com/70GB4NpQWf
— ABC News (@ABC) March 5, 2025
It was instantly noted that this is deep hypocrisy from Trump who, in one of his first actions after being inaugurated for the second time, pardoned hundreds of violent criminals who attacked police officers during the Jan. 6 riots:
A mandatory death penalty for anyone who kills a police officer? Isn’t this the same man who pardoned Jan. 6 insurrectionists who brutally attacked Capitol police officers?
— Yael Eisenstat (@YaelEisenstat) March 5, 2025
Real question for those applauding Trump for that: How do you reconcile those two things?
The starkly violent phrase “mandatory death penalty” is tossing a juicy piece of red meat to conservatives, who will never pass up a chance to indulge in a bit of casual bloodlust. Plus, at least on a surface level, a politician arguing we should be more lenient to convicted cop killers is inevitably going to be pilloried for being anti-cop.
But, make no mistake, this ruling is going to see completely innocent people — possibly even you — killed by the state. Let’s zero in on just one example. In 2011, Chicago police officer Clifton Lewis was shot and killed. Three men, Alexander Villa, Edgardo Colon, and Tyrone Clay were arrested and charged with his murder. In 2023, Colon and Clay had their cases thrown out, but Villa was convicted of the officer’s murder and sentenced to life in prison.
The trio maintained their innocence from the start, with defense attorneys arguing that cops tried to beat a confession of them, that evidence against the trio was outright fabricated, and that cops suppressed FBI cellphone evidence showing none of the men were anywhere near the scene of the crime (or each other) on the night in question. As per defense attorney Jennifer Blagg: “The guy that they beat so much that he had to go to the hospital and was spitting up blood but still refused to confess, he’s the one still in jail. Are you kidding me? This is just wrong,”
In Oct. 2024, after a thorough investigation, Villa’s conviction was overturned after a judge ruled that prosecutors had indeed concealed crucial evidence proving that his innocence. He walked out of prison a free man, while Lewis’s actual murderer has evaded justice. Under Trump’s scheme, Villa would have been handed a death sentence and — had he not had a tenacious defense and a sympathetic judge — would have been murdered by the state.
This case, thankfully, ended with Villa as a free man, but if cops are willing to fabricate evidence and force people to make false confessions in this one instance, you can bet they’re doing it in others across the nation. In fact, given that cops working a case involving the death of a police officer are more likely to have an emotional stake in “solving” the crime, you could argue they’re much more likely to invent false evidence if they’re mistakenly convinced they have the right suspect.
If you’re a red cap-wearing MAGA devotee you’re probably cheering on Trump’s pronouncement but, let’s not beat around the bush, laws like these may well end up with the state murdering you or those you love. But hey, what’s your life to Donald Trump compared to him getting a few minutes of applause?
Published: Mar 5, 2025 08:10 am