US Justice Department to allow firing squads for executions in move to ramp up capital punishment
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The US Department of Justice logo is seen on a podium before a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, on May 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
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Will Berry rings a bell to symbolize opposition to the death penalty during a protest outside the Capitol in Montgomery, Alabama, on Tuesday, September 23,2025. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States 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 used to carry out 13 executions during the first Trump administration — more than under any president in modern history.
The Biden administration had removed pentobarbital from the federal protocol over concerns about the potential for unnecessary pain and suffering.
Since capital punishment was reinstated in the 1970s, more than 1,600 prisoners have been executed in the United States, the vast majority by state authorities.
The moves were announced as part of a broader push to step up federal executions after a moratorium under the Biden administration.
Only three defendants remain on federal death row after Democratic President Joe Biden converted 37 of their sentences to life in prison, though the Trump administration has so far authorized seeking death sentences against 44 defendants.
“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,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, the Department of Justice is once again enforcing the law and standing with victims.”
The federal government has not previously included firing squad as a method of execution in its protocols, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Five states currently allow executions by firing squad: Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah.
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