Overview
- The Justice Department, which unveiled the shift Friday, said firing squads are again permitted and the Biden-era pause on federal executions is over.
- Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche approved requests to seek the death penalty in nine cases and said the department stands with victims.
- The department reinstated Trump-era lethal injection procedures and ordered faster internal reviews to cut delays in capital cases.
- A DOJ report also contemplates using the electric chair and gas to keep executions possible during drug shortages and pharmacy refusals that have hindered lethal injections.
- Democratic Senator Dick Durbin criticized the policy as cruel and discriminatory, underscoring a sharp political divide over capital punishment.