Donna Major was shot dead in 2017 by bank robber Brandon Council, who was convicted and sentenced to death. But Joe Biden – “guided,” as he said he was, “by my conscience” – commuted Council’s sentence along with 36 other men on federal death row in the twilight of his presidency. Was this pardon for Council an insult to Donna and her grieving relatives? Donald Trump thinks so. When he took office, he quickly rescinded Biden’s moratorium on federal executions and issued an executive order instructing states to seek new charges against the 37 killers Biden pardoned. South Carolina indicted Council for Donna’s murder again last year and so he could eventually be back on death row.

The American public approves of the death penalty, the majority support it, and for their President, it’s a defining issue: one of basic common sense and a valuable contrast with bleeding-heart Democrats. But even so, despite Trump’s best efforts, the death penalty is dying out – strangled by a justice system that is unresponsive to the Americans it is supposed to serve. Just 12 executions are scheduled for this year, and, like last year, none is federal. The unmistakable trend over the last 20 years is downward.

Last year, Trump did spur some lethargic states into action. Lethal injections were administered to 19 murderers in Florida alone after Ron DeSantis signed their death warrants. But the states that responded to Trump and carried out executions last year were largely clearing out their death row cells. Many of the killers executed were........

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