Trump administration allows firing squad for federal executions

The administration of Donald Trump has approved firing squads as an official method for federal executions, marking a major shift in US death penalty policy as the Justice Department moves to accelerate capital punishment cases.

The US Department of Justice announced Friday that it is expanding federal execution protocols beyond lethal injection to include firing squads, as well as electrocution and gas asphyxiation.

Officials said the change is designed to ensure executions can proceed even when lethal injection drugs are difficult to obtain.

At the same time, the Justice Department is reinstating the single-drug pentobarbital lethal injection method that was used during Trump’s first term, when 13 federal inmates were executed in the final months of his presidency — the highest number under any modern US president.

In a statement, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Biden administration had failed to carry out justice by pausing federal executions and limiting pursuit of death sentences.

He said the Trump administration intends to “restore” the federal death penalty and stand with victims of the country’s most serious crimes.

The move follows former President Joe Biden’s decision to commute 37 of 40 federal death row sentences, leaving only three inmates currently awaiting execution.

Despite that, Trump’s Justice Department has already authorised prosecutors to seek the death penalty in more than 40 pending federal cases.

Legal experts say the policy will likely trigger constitutional challenges from death penalty opponents, while civil rights groups have condemned the return of what they describe as archaic and inhumane execution methods.

Still, administration officials argue the broader protocol is necessary to streamline capital punishment and avoid delays tied to drug shortages and appeals.