Justice Department Restores Federal Executions, Adds Firing Squad Option

Overview

• The Justice Department, which announced the shift Friday, revoked the Biden-era moratorium and moved to resume lethal injection while permitting firing squads for federal cases.
• Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche directed the Bureau of Prisons to reinstate the pentobarbital injection protocol used in Trump's first term.
• The department ordered prison officials to prepare additional methods judged constitutional, including electrocution and gas asphyxiation.
• Prosecutors received clearance to seek death sentences against dozens of federal defendants, with nine case approvals reported so far.
• Officials cited shortages of lethal-injection drugs as the reason to add other methods, and reporting cautioned that court fights and facility needs could delay any executions for years, with federal executions bound by each state's allowed methods.