Federal executions: US Justice Department permits firing squads and restores pentobarbital

The US Justice Department said it will add firing squads to its approved execution methods. Officials announced the shift on Friday as the Trump administration sought faster action in federal death penalty cases. The department also said it will again allow single-drug lethal injections using pentobarbital, reversing a change made under Joe Biden.

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The department framed the update as part of a wider plan to restart federal executions. Federal executions paused during a moratorium under the Biden administration. Only three people now remain on federal death row. Joe Biden changed 37 death sentences to life in prison. The Trump administration has authorised seeking death sentences against 44 defendants.

Justice Department firing squad method joins federal execution protocol

The federal government has not previously listed firing squad in its execution protocols. That is according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Five states already allow firing squads: Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah. Federal rules can also reflect methods used by states where sentences were imposed.

In 2020, the Justice Department under Bill Barr issued a Federal Register rule. It let the federal government carry out executions by lethal injection. It also allowed "any other manner prescribed by the law of the state in which the sentence was imposed.\" Some states permit other methods, including electrocution and nitrogen gas.

Pentobarbital lethal injection returns to Justice Department protocol

Pentobarbital was used in 13 federal executions during the first Trump administration. That total was higher than under any modern US president. Bill Barr adopted the single-drug protocol to replace a three-drug mix. The three-drug mix was used in the 2000s, when federal executions last occurred before Trump’s first term.

The Biden administration removed pentobarbital from the federal protocol. The change followed concerns about possible pain and suffering. Attorney General Merrick Garland withdrew the policy in the final days of the Biden administration. A government review of scientific and medical research found uncertainty about whether pentobarbital causes unnecessary pain and suffering.

The Trump administration rejected that view in a report released Friday. It said the Biden administration applied the wrong standard. The report said the findings missed key evidence about how the drug works. \"The Biden administrations findings, among other things, failed to address the overwhelming evidence that an injected with pentobarbital quickly quickly loses consciousness-rendering him unable to experience pain, the report said.\"

Trump administration Justice Department cites victims and public safety

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the broader push in a statement. \"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 a statement.\"

Blanche also linked the policy to victims’ interests and enforcement priorities. \"Under President Trumps leadership, the Department of Justice is once again enforcing the law and standing with victims.\" Officials said these steps were meant to speed up capital cases and restart executions after the earlier pause.

The three people listed as currently on federal death row are Dylann Roof and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Robert Bowers. Roof carried out the 2015 racist killings of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church. Tsarnaev was convicted for the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. Bowers shot 11 people at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018.

With inputs from PTI