The Trump Justice Department says it will expand the federal death penalty, including firing squads. The plan argues older execution methods are legally acceptable and targets a Biden-era moratorium.
The Trump administration says it plans to broaden the federal death penalty, including execution by firing squad, signaling a major shift in how Washington intends to carry out capital punishment.
The move was outlined in a Justice Department policy document released Friday, laying out legal reasoning for multiple execution methods and describing the administration’s goal as “restoring and strengthening” the death penalty as part of its definition of justice.. The document frames the federal effort as a return to action once death-sentenced inmates have exhausted their appeals—suggesting a tighter pipeline from sentencing to execution than the Biden-era approach.
A key legal line in the filing is that the US Constitution’s Eighth Amendment prohibits “cruel and unusual punishments,” but the department argues that methods such as execution by gunfire, electrocution and lethal gas can still comply with constitutional standards.. In doing so, it effectively challenges the idea that the methods are disfavoured—or legally constrained—by modern standards of practice.
The policy document also targets President Joe Biden’s decision to pause federal executions, calling it a change that rendered the death penalty “a dead letter.” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote that the moratorium turned each death sentence into a de facto life sentence, and he said the shift began when Trump returned to office.
Beyond federal process, the plan points to practical changes in how executions would be carried out.. It says the administration will return to using pentobarbital for lethal injections, a drug approach associated with Trump’s first term, and it disputes a government assessment that had raised uncertainty about whether pentobarbital “causes unnecessary pain and suffering” during executions.. The document portrays the Biden administration’s earlier decision to stop using the drug as based on incorrect science.
The filing further calls on the Federal Bureau of Prisons to consider expanding the federal death row and building additional facilities so that there are “additional manners of execution” available, including the firing squad option.. In the modern US, firing squads remain uncommon: only five states currently allow them for executions—Idaho, South Carolina, Utah, Mississippi and Oklahoma.
In recent years, however, momentum has shifted at the state level.. South Carolina authorized at least three people to be executed by gunfire last year, described as the first such executions in 15 years.. Idaho passed legislation making firing squads a primary method of execution.. While those are state decisions, the federal plan suggests the Trump administration wants those options reflected in federal practice as well.
There is also a stark real-world risk that critics emphasize: the possibility of prolonged dying and factual uncertainty in execution outcomes.. One example often cited in debate is an autopsy in a firing-squad case indicating that none of the bullets struck the heart, extending the time to death.. Critics argue that even if procedures are followed, the consequences can still be unpredictable—an issue that becomes more serious when the state has limited avenues to correct irreversible harm.
The political and moral conflict around capital punishment is unlikely to ease.. Critics warn that executions fall disproportionately on minorities and people with fewer resources, pointing to longstanding concerns about fairness in charging, sentencing and legal defense.. They also argue that wrongful convictions are impossible to fully address once a death sentence is carried out, a point underscored by estimates that at least 202 people in the US have been exonerated after receiving death sentences since the mid-1970s.
Supporters, including the Justice Department in Friday’s release, argue capital punishment is necessary for severe crimes and provide closure for victims’ families.. The department described the new steps as a deterrent for “barbaric crimes” and as a path to justice and “long-overdue closure.” That framing matters politically because it ties policy to emotion and public demand—while also shaping how administrations defend the expansion of a practice that many countries have moved away from.
The wider international picture remains one of retreat from executions.. While roughly 55 countries still permit the death penalty, a major trend has been abolition: about 141 countries have ended it, including almost all of Europe.. The US continues to swing between enforcement and pause, and the federal death penalty has repeatedly become a flashpoint in presidential politics.
During Trump’s first term, executions resumed at the federal level after years of limited activity, with the administration overseeing 13 executions before Biden took office.. When Biden became president in January 2021, his administration announced a moratorium on federal executions, and later commuted the sentences of many inmates on federal death row to life imprisonment.. Friday’s document signals the Trump White House intends to reverse that direction, with Blanche portraying the Biden-era commutations as failures that must be undone.
For now, the administration’s policy paper sets out intent and legal justification—but the impact will be measured in court timelines, prison capacity, and how quickly the federal system can move from procedure to execution.. If the firing squad option becomes part of federal practice, it would mark a further escalation in how Washington treats capital punishment, while reigniting the same arguments about fairness, finality, and human cost that have followed the death penalty for decades.