Execution By Firing Squad: Trump Justice Department Moves to Restore Federal Death Penalty
The US Justice Department said on Friday, at 12: 00 ET, that it is taking steps to strengthen the federal death penalty, including execution by firing squad. The move is part of a broader push to restore and speed up capital punishment after the Biden-era moratorium on federal executions.
The department said it is clearing the way to carry out executions once death-sentenced inmates have exhausted their appeals. It also said it is readopting the lethal injection protocol used during the first Trump administration, with pentobarbital as the lethal agent, while expanding the protocol to include additional manners of execution.
What the Justice Department said on Friday
In its statement, the Justice Department said it has rescinded the Biden-era moratorium on federal executions and authorized seeking death sentences against 44 defendants. It added that Todd Blanche, the acting US attorney general, has already authorized seeking death sentence against nine of those defendants.
The department also said it is streamlining internal processes to expedite death penalty cases. In the same announcement, it said it plans in the coming weeks to consider a rule that would empower states to streamline federal habeas review of capital cases and to publish a proposed rule prohibiting capital inmates from submitting clemency petitions.
The policy shift follows Donald Trump’s January order directing the Justice Department to pursue federal death sentences and ensure that states have sufficient supplies of lethal injection drugs for executions. Federal executions had been on hold since 2021, when Merrick Garland imposed a moratorium pending a review of Justice Department policies and procedures.
Execution By Firing Squad and the legal frame
The department’s position is that execution by gunfire, electrocution and lethal gas are legally acceptable methods. Its new policy document argues for “restoring and strengthening” the death penalty as part of the pursuit of justice, while taking aim at Biden-era limits on federal executions.
In the same policy context, the department said it is returning to pentobarbital for lethal injections and expanding the federal execution framework to include execution by firing squad. The filing also calls on the Federal Bureau of Prisons to consider expanding federal death row and constructing an additional facility to permit additional manners of execution.
Reactions and the wider debate
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the federal death penalty had been reduced to a “dead letter” under the prior administration. He added that this changed when Donald Trump became president.
Outside the Justice Department, the broader debate remains intense. The Death Penalty Information Center said last year that the evidence shows capital punishment is increasingly unpopular with the American people, even as elected officials schedule executions in search of diminishing political benefits. A Gallup poll published in October found support for capital punishment for people convicted of murder had fallen from 80% in 1994 to 52% in 2025.
At the state level, Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah allow executions by firing squad in certain circumstances. The Justice Department’s decision places execution by firing squad back at the center of the federal death penalty fight, and the next steps will likely focus on implementation, legal review and how quickly the department moves on the cases it has already authorized. For now, execution by firing squad is no longer just a state-level option in the conversation; it is part of the federal plan.
