The firing squad will once again be used for US death row inmates. Department of Justice recommendations
A report by the Department of Justice recommends that executions of people sentenced to death for crimes committed at the federal level be carried out by firing squad, by electrocution or by gas asphyxiation, as an alternative to executions by lethal injection, because of the difficulties related to obtaining the lethal substances, informs Reuters.
In his first term, President Donald Trump ordered the resumption of federal death row executions after a 20-year hiatus. In Trump's final months in office, 13 federal prisoners were executed by lethal injection.
Joe Biden imposed a moratorium on federal death row executions and commuted the sentences of 37 inmates in federal prisons, leaving only three inmates awaiting execution.
After returning to the White House, Trump rescinded Biden's moratorium, and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche authorized seeking the death penalty in nine cases.
“Among the decisions made are re-adopting the lethal injection protocol from the first Trump administration, expanding the protocol to include new modes such as the firing squad, and streamlining internal processes to expedite death penalty cases,” the Justice Department said in a statement.
“Under President Trump, the Department of Justice is once again enforcing the law and standing with victims,” Blanche said.
In the report, Blanche ordered the prison administration to change execution protocol “to include new, constitutional methods that are permitted by law in certain states,” pointing to execution by firing squad or electrocution, as well as a new method, gas asphyxiation, introduced by the state of Alabama in 2024.
“This change will make the Department ready to resort to legal executions even if a particular substance is not available,” the report said, referring to the current method of lethal injection.
