WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department will adopt firing squads as a permitted method of execution as the Trump administration moves to ramp up and expedite capital punishment cases, officials said Friday.
The Justice Department is also reauthorizing the use of single-drug lethal injections with pentobarbital that were previously used to carry out 13 executions during the first Trump administration — more than any president in modern history. The Biden administration had halted its use due to concerns about the potential for unnecessary pain and suffering.
The announcement was made as part of a broader initiative to increase federal executions after a moratorium enforced during the Biden administration. Currently, there are only three defendants remaining on federal death row, following the conversion of 37 death sentences to life imprisonment under Democratic President Joe Biden. In contrast, the Trump administration has authorized pursuing death sentences for 44 defendants.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche expressed in a statement, “The prior administration failed in its duty to protect the American people by refusing to pursue and carry out the ultimate punishment against the most dangerous criminals, including terrorists, child murderers, and cop killers.” He added that the Department of Justice is once again enforcing the law under President Trump.
Historically, the federal government has not included firing squad executions in its protocols. Currently, five states allow for executions by firing squad, namely Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah.
The pentobarbital protocol was adopted by Bill Barr during Trump’s first term to replace a three-drug cocktail that had been used in executions prior to his first term. However, Attorney General Merrick Garland revoked this policy in the last days of the Biden administration after a government review indicated significant uncertainty surrounding the potential for causing unnecessary pain and suffering through its use.
The Trump administration’s report released Friday criticized the Biden administration's conclusion, arguing that it “failed to address the overwhelming evidence” concerning the effectiveness and humanity of pentobarbital injections.
Among those still on death row are individuals like Dylann Roof, responsible for the mass shooting at a Black church in Charleston in 2015; Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bomber; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in 2018.
