DOJ seeks to bring back firing squads, electric chairs for some death penalty cases
The Department of Justice (DOJ) said Friday it will bring back the use of firing squads and electric chairs for some death penalty cases, as well as “readopting” the use of lethal injections as used during the first Trump administration.
Department officials said in a statement that bringing back these manners of execution “are critical to deterring the most barbaric crimes, delivering justice for victims, and providing long-overdue closure to surviving loved ones.”
“The prior administration failed in its duty to protect the American people by refusing to pursue and carry out the ultimate punishment against the most dangerous criminals, including terrorists, child murderers, and cop killers,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in the statement. “Under President Trump’s leadership, the Department of Justice is once again enforcing the law and standing with victims.”
The DOJ added that on Friday it directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to expand execution protocols to “include additional manners of execution such as the firing squad.”
The department also released a report that it says supports bringing back the use of pentobarbital to execute inmates on federal death row. The report also pointed to bringing back other older methods of execution, including electrocution and the gas asphyxiation method using nitrogen gas on inmates in Alabama in 2024.
The U.S. prison in Terre Haute, Ind., is where 13 prisoners were executed by lethal injections of pentobarbital during the first Trump administration. It is also the home of federal death row inmates.
Former Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2021 placed a moratorium on executions for federal crimes two years after Trump’s DOJ announced that federal capital punishment would return after 20 years of not being in use.
Former President Biden commuted the sentences of 37 people on federal death row. Three men remain: convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; self-proclaimed white supremacist and convicted mass shooter Dylann Roof; and convicted Tree of Life Synagogue mass shooter Robert Bowers.
Five states authorize the death penalty by firing squad. South Carolina, Idaho, Utah, Mississippi and Oklahoma typically use this method as a backup to lethal injection. South Carolina is the most recent of these five to adopt the method, which was authorized in 2021.
Trump referred to using a firing squad when criticizing former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), an outspoken Trump critic. He called Cheney a “radical war hawk” during an interview with conservative media personality Tucker Carlson.
“Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK,” he told Carlson. “Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.”
The remark drew outrage. The president’s campaign claimed that Trump was “100% correct that warmongers like Liz Cheney are very quick to start wars and send other Americans to fight them, rather than go into combat themselves.”
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