The Justice Department has also reintroduced lethal injections to ‘deliver justice’ for victims and their families. There are three inmates on federal death row
A lethal-injection chamber at Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla
Matt Mills McKnight/REUTERS
Keiran Southern, West Coast Editor, US
Friday April 24 2026, 7.37pm BST, The Times
The US Justice Department has said it is reintroducing firing squads and readopting the lethal injection as part of an effort to strengthen the federal death penalty.
President Trump reintroduced federal executions during his first term in office from 2017 to 2021, after what had been a pause of almost two decades.
President Biden then implemented a death-penalty moratorium and before leaving office commuted the sentences of 37 of 40 death-row inmates to life without parole.
The US Justice Department has said it is reintroducing firing squads and readopting the lethal injection as part of an effort to strengthen the federal death penalty.
President Trump reintroduced federal executions during his first term in office from 2017 to 2021, after what had been a pause of almost two decades.
President Biden then implemented a death-penalty moratorium and before leaving office commuted the sentences of 37 of 40 death-row inmates to life without parole.
President Biden commuted 37 death sentences before leaving officeANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/Getty Images
In his second term Trump has rescinded the moratorium and Todd Blanche, the acting attorney-general, has authorised seeking the death penalty against nine people.
The Department of Justice announced its latest efforts to bolster federal executions on Friday, including the reintroduction of death by firing squad.
“Among the actions taken are readopting the lethal-injection protocol utilised during the first Trump administration, expanding the protocol to include additional manners of execution such as the firing squad and streamlining internal processes to expedite death-penalty cases,” the department said in a statement.
“These steps are critical to deterring the most barbaric crimes, delivering justice for victims and providing long-overdue closure to surviving loved ones.”Inside the death penalty capital of America
Trump’s first administration carried out 13 federal executions, more than any president in modern history. During the 2024 election campaign he said drug dealers should face the death penalty and praised China’s approach to the issue, where peddlers face swift execution.
Hours after returning to office in January 2025 Trump signed a sweeping executive order that directed the attorney-general to “take all necessary and lawful action” to ensure that states have enough lethal injection drugs to carry out executions.
Merrick Garland, Biden’s attorney-general, withdrew the Justice Department’s protocol for federal executions that allowed for single-drug lethal injections with pentobarbital. A government review raised concerns about the potential for “unnecessary pain and suffering” for prisoners executed with the drug.
In his second term Trump has rescinded the moratorium and Todd Blanche, the acting attorney-general, has authorised seeking the death penalty against nine people.
The Department of Justice announced its latest efforts to bolster federal executions on Friday, including the reintroduction of death by firing squad.
“Among the actions taken are readopting the lethal-injection protocol utilised during the first Trump administration, expanding the protocol to include additional manners of execution such as the firing squad and streamlining internal processes to expedite death-penalty cases,” the department said in a statement.
“These steps are critical to deterring the most barbaric crimes, delivering justice for victims and providing long-overdue closure to surviving loved ones.”Inside the death penalty capital of America
Trump’s first administration carried out 13 federal executions, more than any president in modern history. During the 2024 election campaign he said drug dealers should face the death penalty and praised China’s approach to the issue, where peddlers face swift execution.
Hours after returning to office in January 2025 Trump signed a sweeping executive order that directed the attorney-general to “take all necessary and lawful action” to ensure that states have enough lethal injection drugs to carry out executions.
Merrick Garland, Biden’s attorney-general, withdrew the Justice Department’s protocol for federal executions that allowed for single-drug lethal injections with pentobarbital. A government review raised concerns about the potential for “unnecessary pain and suffering” for prisoners executed with the drug.
Biden left three inmates on federal death row. They are Dylann Roof, who carried out the 2015 racist killings of nine black members of a church in South Carolina; the 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018, the deadliest antisemitic attack in US history.
Cost estimates for death-penalty drugs vary widely. Last year a Republican congressman in Indiana suggested firing squad or the gallows should be used to execute criminals, citing the $300,000 price tag for a dose of pentobarbital.
Cost estimates for death-penalty drugs vary widely. Last year a Republican congressman in Indiana suggested firing squad or the gallows should be used to execute criminals, citing the $300,000 price tag for a dose of pentobarbital.
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