“Nancy Guthrie come back alive or death penalty for the kidnappers”

In a brief telephone interview with the New York Post, Trump said he would order the Justice Department to seek the death penalty if the 84-year-old was found dead. The perpetrators of the kidnapping, he said, would face “very, very severe consequences – the most severe.” Asked whether that meant capital punishment would be called for, the president replied: “The most severe, yes – that’s true.”

In the United States, federal charges are common in high-profile cases, especially when there is interstate involvement or violations of federal laws. Arizona has the death penalty, although executions have been rare in recent years; the administration also intends to transfer federal prisoners sentenced to death whose sentences have been commuted to a maximum security prison.