The Justice Department on Friday said it will seek to impose the death penalty in more federal cases and will expand the way in which convicted inmates can be killed—including bringing back the firing squad as a means of execution.
President Donald Trump on April 10, 2026.
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The department said it will bring back firing squads to kill prisoners and re-adopt lethal injections using pentobarbital, which were put on pause by former President Joe Biden after a government review found the drug may cause “unnecessary pain and suffering.”
The DOJ also released a report Friday that said the work of "anti-death-penalty activists" has made lethal injection drugs difficult to find and, because of their scarcity, recommended the Federal Bureau of Prisons use electrocution and asphyxiation via lethal gas to execute inmates.
President Donald Trump has told the DOJ to seek the death penalty in more cases, the department said, and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche suggested it will be more actively sought going forward in cases against "terrorists, child murderers, and cop killers."
There are currently only three men on federal death row, after Biden commuted the sentences of 37 others awaiting executions to life without parole, and Blanche has authorized seeking death sentences against nine more.
In his first term, Trump resumed capital punishment after a 20-year pause and 13 federal prisoners were killed via lethal injection, including several involving significant medical and procedural issues.
The return to the death penalty is the fulfillment of a promise Trump made in both of his campaigns. In his first term, Trump resumed capital punishment after a 20-year pause and 13 federal prisoners were killed via lethal injection, including several involving significant medical and procedural issues. One such case was that of Corey Johnson, who suffered from pulmonary edema during his lethal injection execution, resulting in “a painful condition akin to drowning,” the Associated Press reported. The administration was also criticized for how it obtained its lethal injection drugs, using a secret supply chain involving small, domestic manufacturers and specialized pharmacies because major pharmaceutical companies refused to sell their products for use in the death penalty. Changes made to Justice Department policies in Trump’s first term that made it easier to schedule and perform federal executions were largely rescinded under Biden, who commuted the sentences of all but three federal death row inmates.
South Carolina church shooter Dylann Roof, Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Robert Bowers, who shot and killed 11 people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.
Federal law permits authorities to carry out executions using any method permitted by the law of the state in which the sentence is imposed. There are currently 27 states where at least one method of execution is permitted by law, though governors in many states have imposed moratoriums on executions and others haven't carried out executions in years. The states that still permit capital punishment, according to the DOJ, are: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming. All 27 states allow lethal injection in some form, and four—Utah, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Mississippi—specifically mention the firing squad as another legal means. Several states permit "any" other method of execution, which would include electrocution, the firing squad or lethal gas, may be used if the lethal injection is ever deemed constitutional.
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