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DOJ reinstates firing squads, pentobarbital for federal executions
- Jacob Rosen | CBS News
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
The Justice Department announced on Friday that it would reimplement lethal injection and firing squads as part of the Trump administration's efforts to "strengthen" the federal death penalty.
"Among the actions taken are readopting the lethal injection protocol utilized 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 Justice Department said in a press release.
The department went on to say these measures would be "critical to deterring the most barbaric crimes, delivering justice for victims, and providing long-overdue closure to surviving loved ones."
President Trump, on the first day of his second administration, signed an executive order directing the death penalty to be pursued "for all crimes of a severity demanding its use," and demanded the attorney general seek the death penalty in cases involving the murder of a law enforcement officer and capital crimes committed by illegal immigrants present in the U.S.
During his first term, Mr. Trump restarted federal executions after nearly a 20-year pause. In 2021, President Joe Biden instituted a moratorium on executions so it could review policies and procedures.
At the end of his term, Biden granted clemency to 37 of the 40 federal inmates facing death sentences, commuting their sentences to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The three inmates who didn't receive clemency were the man convicted in the 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue shooting, the gunman who carried out a mass shooting in 2015 at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, and the surviving 2013 Boston Marathon bomber.
In February 2025, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi lifted the federal moratorium on the death penalty that had been implemented by the Biden administration and ordered federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in appropriate cases.
She instructed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in the ongoing criminal trial of Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, in 2024. In January, a federal judge in New York dismissed the federal firearms charges that would have made Mangione eligible for the death penalty.
Soon after Todd Blanche was elevated from the No. 2 job at DOJ to acting attorney general after Bondi's ouster, he authorized the top federal prosecutor in California to seek the death penalty for three alleged MS-13 members charged with killing a victim who was cooperating with authorities.
"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," Blanche said in a statement. "
The department also published a report criticizing the Biden Justice Department for causing "untold harm to the public," for its steps to "weaken, delay and dismantle the death penalty." The report said that in the current Justice Department's view, the use of pentobarbital, the drug used for executions by injection, is not a violation of the Eighth Amendment."
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