US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his administration will seek the reinstatement of the death penalty for murder cases in Washington, D.C., the nation’s capital, NBC News reports.

“If somebody kills somebody in the capital, Washington, D.C., we’re going to be seeking the death penalty,” Trump said during a lengthy Cabinet meeting at the White House. Trump suggested that such a policy would potentially deter people from committing murder, saying that capital punishment is a "very strong preventative." "We have no choice. So in D.C. ... if somebody kills somebody ... it's the death penalty," said Trump, who made clear that other states would have to make their individual decisions about the issue.

On the day he was sworn in in January, Trump signed an executive order that expressed a desire to augment capital punishment across the US. According to nonprofit the Death Penalty Information Center, the Supreme Court nullified the death penalty in D.C. in 1972 and the D.C. Council formally repealed it in 1981. D.C. residents later voted in 1992 to not reinstate capital punishment in the city.