Imposition of Death Penalty for Presidential Assassination

Can You Get the Death Penalty for Presidential Assassination

As the nation reels from the attempted assassination of former President Trump on July 13, 2024, many are wondering what would have happened if Thomas Matthew Crooks had not been killed. Would he have faced the death penalty for the attempt? What if someone is successful in taking a President’s life? Does it matter if the assassination was of a current or former President?

The Death Penalty for Presidential Assassination

Killing the President of the United States is considered one of the most serious federal crimes and is punishable by death. The current federal statute authorizing capital punishment for presidential assassination is 18 U.S.C. § 1751, which was enacted in 1965 following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Legislative History and Statutes

Prior to 1965, there was no specific federal law criminalizing the assassination of the president. The assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865 was prosecuted as a military crime by a military commission since it was considered part of a wartime conspiracy. The assassinations of Presidents Garfield and McKinley in 1881 and 1901 were prosecuted under state murder laws.

After President Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, Congress passed the Presidential Assassination Statute as part of the 1965 amendments to the United States Code. 18 U.S.C. § 1751 made it a federal crime to kill, kidnap, or assault the President, President-elect, Vice President, or other officers in the line of succession to the presidency.

The law authorized the death penalty or life imprisonment for assassination. The Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994 revised and expanded federal death penalty procedures. It reaffirmed the assassination of the President as a capital offense and added new protections and procedures for capital cases.

Current statute 18 U.S.C. § 1751 states:

“(a) Whoever kills (1) any individual who is the President of the United States, the President-elect, the Vice President, or, if there is no Vice President, the officer next in the order of succession to the Office of the President of the United States, the Vice President-elect, or any person who is acting as President under the Constitution and laws of the United States… shall be punished (1) by imprisonment for any term of years or for life, or (2) by death or imprisonment for any term of years or for life, if death results to such individual.”

Video of Thomas Matthew Crooks’s Assassination Attempt on July 13, 2024

Imposition of the Death Penalty

While the federal statute authorizes capital punishment for presidential assassination, the death penalty has never actually been imposed under this law. The four successful presidential assassins in U.S. history were all prosecuted before the 1965 federal statute was enacted:

• John Wilkes Booth (Lincoln’s assassin) was killed while being apprehended
• Charles Guiteau (Garfield’s assassin) was executed by hanging under District of Columbia law in 1882
• Leon Czolgosz (McKinley’s assassin) was executed by electric chair under New York state law in 1901
• Lee Harvey Oswald (Kennedy’s accused assassin) was murdered before he could be tried

U.S. Presidents Who Were Assassinated

• Abraham Lincoln – Shot by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865 while attending a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C. Lincoln died the next morning.
• James A. Garfield – Shot by Charles Guiteau on July 2, 1881 at a railroad station in Washington D.C. Garfield died 11 weeks later on September 19, 1881 from infections related to his wounds.
• William McKinley – Shot by Leon Czolgosz on September 6, 1901 while attending the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. McKinley died 8 days later on September 14, 1901.
• John F. Kennedy – Shot by Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22, 1963 while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the hospital.

Presidents Who Were Shot But Survived

• Theodore Roosevelt – Shot by John Flammang Schrank on October 14, 1912 during a campaign stop in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The bullet lodged in Roosevelt’s chest, but he survived.
• Ronald Reagan – Shot by John Hinckley Jr. on March 30, 1981 outside the Washington Hilton Hotel. Reagan was seriously wounded but recovered.
• Donald Trump – Former President Trump was shot by Thomas Matthew Crooks on July 13, 2024.

Punishment for Attempted Assassination

Federal law distinguishes between successful and attempted assassinations in terms of punishment:

• Successful assassination can result in the death penalty.
• Attempted assassination has a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Under 18 U.S.C. § 1751, attempted assassination of the President is punishable by up to life in prison:

“(c) Whoever attempts to kill or kidnap any individual designated in subsection (a) of this section shall be punished by imprisonment for any term of years or for life.”

Attempted Presidential Assassinations and Punishments

• John Hinckley Jr. (attempted to kill Reagan) – Found not guilty by reason of insanity and confined to a psychiatric hospital for over 30 years before being released under strict conditions in 2016.
• Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme (attempted to kill Ford) – Sentenced to life in prison, served 34 years before being paroled in 2009.
• Sara Jane Moore (attempted to kill Ford) – Sentenced to life in prison, served 32 years before being paroled in 2007. (Both Moore and Fromme attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford in September of 1975, just 17 days apart. They did not know each other.)
• Oscar Collazo (attempted to kill Truman) – Initially sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment. Served 29 years before being pardoned in 1979.

While the statute allows for life sentences, in practice, many attempted assassins have eventually been paroled or released after serving lengthy prison terms. The exact punishment can vary based on the specific circumstances of each case.

Does the federal statute cover former presidents?

The terms “President-elect” and “Vice-President-elect” as used in this section mean:

“such persons as are the apparent successful candidates for the offices of President and Vice President, respectively, as ascertained from the results of the general elections held to determine the electors of President and Vice President in accordance with title 3, United States Code, sections 1 and 2.”

The statute explicitly defines who is covered, including the current President, President-elect, Vice President, Vice President-elect, and the next person in the line of succession if there is no Vice President. It also covers any person acting as President under the Constitution and laws of the United States. Notably absent from this definition is any mention of former presidents.

When was the last federal execution?

Federal execution in the United States took place on January 16, 2021. Here are the key details:

• The last person executed by the federal government was Dustin Higgs on January 16, 2021.
• Between July 2020 and January 2021, the federal government executed 13 prisoners.
• On July 1, 2021, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland halted all federal executions pending a review of the policies and procedures.

As of December 2023, there were 40 prisoners on federal death row.