Donald Trump cannot reverse Biden's death-row commutations. Yet Trump is ready to put more people on death row, as the BBC reports. During his election, he vowed to resume federal executions and make more people eligible to receive the death penalty, including those convicted of raping children or drug and human-trafficking cases, as well as migrants who kill US citizens or police officers. "These are terrible, terrible, horrible people who are responsible for death, carnage and crime all over the country," Trump said when he announced his presidential candidacy in 2022. "We're going to be asking everyone who sells drugs, gets caught, to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts.”
Despite his statements, Trump is unlikely to be able to quickly re-populate the pool of federal death row inmates, because most death penalty cases take years and are subject to lengthy appeals processes. He also may face legal challenges if he expands the law. Currently, there are more than 40 federal laws that can, in theory, result in the death penalty, ranging from murders committed during a drug-related shooting to genocide. Almost all - with the exception of espionage and treason - explicitly involve the death of a victim. But in 2008, for example, the Supreme Court ruled that those convicted of raping children cannot be executed, adding that it's unclear if the death penalty could be applied to crimes in which a victim is not killed.