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6h ago

Justice Department Adds Firing Squad to Federal Execution Methods

The move signals a push to speed executions, likely to draw court challenges over execution methods, due process, clemency limits.

Image
FILE - The U.S. 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)
A a new banner featuring an image of US President Donald Trump is displayed on the facade of the US Department of Justice headquarters, in Washington, DC, February 20, 2026.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice Allan B. Polunsky Unit sits in the distance July 14, 2018 in Livingston.

Overview

  • DOJ, which announced the shift Friday, reinstated the single‑drug pentobarbital protocol, ended the Biden-era moratorium, and added firing squads to federal options.
  • The department said prosecutors are authorized to seek death sentences in 44 cases, describing the steps as necessary to deter severe crimes and to deliver justice for victims’ families.
  • Officials directed the Bureau of Prisons to study relocating or expanding federal death row or building a new execution site to support the updated protocols.
  • Planned rulemaking includes proposals to speed federal habeas review and to bar clemency petitions from capital inmates until all court proceedings are finished, moves that legal groups are expected to challenge.
  • Only five states currently allow firing squads and the method has been used rarely in recent decades, while federal executions resumed in 2020–21 before Biden’s 2021 pause and his 2024 commutations left three inmates on federal death row.