The US Justice Department announced on Friday that it is taking steps to strengthen the federal death penalty, including reintroducing firing squads as a method of execution. The move reverses Biden-era policies and adopts the lethal injection protocol used during the first Trump administration.
In a news release, the department stated it was 'readopting the lethal injection protocol utilized during the first Trump Administration', which uses pentobarbital, and 'expanding the protocol to include additional manners of execution such as the firing squad'. It also said it was streamlining processes to expedite death penalty cases.
The department has rescinded the moratorium on federal executions imposed under President Joe Biden and has authorised seeking death sentences against 44 defendants. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has already approved death sentences for nine of these individuals.
Federal executions had been on hold since 2021 when then-Attorney General Merrick Garland ordered a review of policies. During Donald Trump's first term, the government resumed federal executions after nearly 20 years. Trump signed an executive order in January committing to pursue federal death sentences.
At the state level, five states—Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah—already allow firing squads in certain circumstances. Executions in the US rose to their highest level in 16 years last year, though public support for the death penalty has declined from 80% in 1994 to 52% in 2025, according to Gallup.
