Trump admin restores US federal executions, approves firing squad method

The Trump Administration has announced the restoration of federal death sentences in the United States, allowing the Department of Justice to carry out executions once death‑sentenced inmates have exhausted their appeals. The DoJ is readopting the lethal injection protocol used during President Trump’s first term, adding the firing squad as an additional method, and streamlining internal procedures to expedite death‑penalty cases. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the move follows President Trump’s directive to prioritize death sentences in appropriate cases and carry them out promptly, accusing the Biden Administration of weakening the death penalty by commuting the sentences of 37 of 40 federal death‑row inmates in December 2024. The Trump Administration has rescinded the Biden‑Garland moratorium on federal executions and has authorized seeking death sentences against 44 defendants, with Blanche already approving the process for nine of them, including three MS‑13 members accused of murdering a federal witness. The Federal Bureau of Prisons has been directed to reinstate the execution protocol, which relies on pentobarbital as the lethal agent, and to implement firing squads as an extra option. The DoJ plans to bar capital inmates from filing clemency petitions and to stop the Pardon Attorney’s Office from considering such petitions until the court rules on an inmate’s direct appeal and first collateral attack. Since the federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988, the U.S. government has executed 16 people by lethal injection—three under President George W. Bush and 13 under President Trump between July 2020 and January 2021.

SOURCE: https://dailypost.ng/2026/04/26/trump-admin-restores-us-federal-executions-approves-firing-squads/