US justice department to allow firing squads as federal death penalty method
Summary
The US Justice Department announced that it will allow firing squads as a method for federal executions and will bring back the lethal injection procedure used during President Trump’s first term. The department also ended the Biden administration’s pause on federal executions and plans to speed up death penalty cases.Key Facts
- The Justice Department is reinstating firing squads and lethal injection using pentobarbital for federal executions.
- The Biden administration’s moratorium on federal executions has been lifted.
- The department will seek the death penalty for 44 defendants, with 9 already approved by the acting attorney general.
- Federal executions had been paused since 2021 during the Biden presidency.
- President Trump signed an order to resume federal executions and ensure drug supplies for lethal injections in early 2024.
- The department plans to change rules to speed up reviews of capital cases and limit clemency petitions from death row inmates.
- Five states currently allow firing squad executions in certain situations: Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah.
- Executions in the US increased to the highest level in 16 years in 2024, but public support for the death penalty is declining.
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