Live by the gun/Die by the gun
Safia Samee Ali
April 24, 2026
NewsNation
The Justice Department is moving to add the firing squad as a federal execution method and resume executions after a Biden-era moratorium.
The department said Friday it is directing the Federal Bureau of Prisons to reinstate execution protocols adopted during the first Trump administration, which rely on pentobarbital, a drug used in lethal injections.
It is also directing the BOP to expand its protocol to allow additional methods beyond lethal injection, including the firing squad, and is seeking to streamline âinternal processes to expedite death penalty cases.â
The agency said it concluded that the use of the pentobarbital to carry out death sentences is consistent with the Eighth Amendment.
âToday, the Department of Justice acted to restore its solemn duty to seek, obtain, and implement lawful capital sentencesâclearing the way for the Department to carry out executions once death-sentenced inmates have exhausted their appeals,â the agency said in a statement.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Biden administration âfailed in its duty to protect the American people by refusing to pursue and carry out the ultimate punishment against the most dangerous criminals,â adding that the second Trump administration is picking up where the first left off.
Biden-era moratorium lifted by Trump administration
In announcing the move to resume federal executions, the Justice Department criticized former Attorney General Merrick Garland saying his policies âweaken, delay, and dismantle the death penalty.â
The Biden administration rescinded its protocol for federal executions that allowed for single-drug lethal injections with pentobarbital, after a government review raised concerns about the potential for âunnecessary pain and suffering.â
Garlandâs order to withdraw the lethal injection policy came days before Trump took office for his second term.
A moratorium on federal executions had been in place since 2021.
In his final days in office, then-President Joe Biden commuted the death sentences of 37 of the 40 convicted killers on federal death row. As of April 2026, there are 3 people on federal death row. This includes leaving only Tree of Life Synagogue shooter Robert Bowers, Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof, and Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
In explaining his commutations, Biden said, âThese commutations are consistent with the moratorium my Administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.â
Lethal injections called into question for âunnecessary pain and sufferingâ
The pentobarbital protocol was adopted by Bill Barr, attorney general during Trumpâs first term, to replace a three-drug mix used in the 2000s.
The first Trump administration carried out 13 federal executions, more than under any president in modern history.
Under a review conducted by the Biden Justice Department, scientific and medical research found there remains âsignificant uncertainty about whether the use of pentobarbital as a single drug lethal injection causes unnecessary pain and suffering.â
âIn the face of such uncertainty, the Department should err on the side of treating individuals humanely and avoiding unnecessary pain and suffering,â Garland wrote in his memo ordering the director of the Bureau of Prisons to rescind the protocol. Garland said it should not be reinstated âunless and until that uncertainty is resolved.â
Several legal challenges have been brought in several states where pentobarbital is the primary method of execution.
Media witnesses accounts, including from the Associated Press, described how prisonersâ stomachs rolled, shook and shuddered as the pentobarbital took effect during executions at the U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Inmatesâ lawyers argued it proved pentobarbital caused flash pulmonary edema, in which fluid rushes through quickly disintegrating membranes into lungs and airways, causing pain akin to being suffocated or drowned.
The Eighth Amendment prohibits execution methods that are âcruel and unusual.â
Trump administration says lethal injection is constitutional; will fast-track death penalties
In a new report released Friday, the Trump administration argued that the Biden-era challenges to pentobarbital were incorrect.
In their own findings, the Justice Department said lethal injections using the drug âcomplied with the strictures of the Eighth Amendment.â
"Under proper analysis, the administration of pentobarbital as a single-drug lethal injection protocol readily comports with all legal requirements,â the report said, adding that the Biden-era work was wrong both on the science and the legal standard.
In rescinding the Biden-era moratorium, the Justice Department said it has authorized seeking death sentences against 44 defendants, including three MS-13 members.
It adds that in the coming weeks, the department plans to speed up death penalty cases by streamlining federal review, delaying clemency petitions until appeals are finalized, and revising internal policies to more efficiently
pursue death sentences while consulting victimsâ families.
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