Justice Department Restarts Federal Death Penalty, Restores Pentobarbital and Authorizes Firing Squad

The Justice Department on Friday moved to restart and broaden the federal death-penalty system, restoring the Trump-era lethal-injection protocol, directing the federal prison system to add execution methods including the firing squad, and laying groundwork for changes meant to speed capital cases.

In an April 24 press release, “The Justice Department Takes Actions To Strengthen The Federal Death Penalty,” and a same-day 52-page Office of Legal Policy report, “Restoring and Strengthening the Federal Death Penalty,” the department said it has readopted the one-drug pentobarbital protocol used during President Donald Trump’s first term. It also said it has directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to expand the execution protocol to include additional methods, explicitly including the firing squad, and to examine relocating or expanding federal death row or building another execution facility. The department said it “has rescinded the Biden-Garland moratorium on federal executions” and acted to clear the way for executions once inmates sentenced to death have exhausted their appeals.

The Office of Legal Policy report concluded that use of pentobarbital “comports with the Eighth Amendment” and recommended that the department readopt that protocol. But the Justice Department’s April 24 materials did not include the full text of any new Bureau of Prisons protocol addendum, meaning the operational details of how any expanded federal execution protocol would work were not publicly available Friday. In its press release, the department said “the Department of Justice acted to restore its solemn duty to seek, obtain, and implement lawful capital sentences.”

The department also said it has authorized seeking death sentences against 44 defendants. According to the Justice Department, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has already personally authorized seeking death sentences against nine of them, including three alleged MS-13 members. The department did not publish the names of the 44 defendants in its April 24 materials. Blanche said in the press release, “Under President Trump’s leadership, the Department of Justice is once again enforcing the law and standing with victims.”

Beyond execution methods, the department said it will consider or pursue several policy changes affecting capital litigation. Those include a rule intended to let states streamline federal habeas review in capital cases; habeas review is a post-conviction process in federal court that allows prisoners to challenge the legality of their detention. The department also said it is weighing a proposed rule that would bar federal death-row inmates from filing clemency petitions until their direct appeal and first collateral attack are complete, and revisions to the Justice Manual, the department’s internal policy guide for prosecutors, to return to what DOJ described as its historic approach to capital crimes.

The announcement explicitly tied the new steps to Trump’s Executive Order 14164, signed Jan. 20, 2025, and titled “Restoring the Death Penalty and Protecting Public Safety.” The order called for restoring the federal death penalty and supporting states’ use of capital punishment.

Friday’s announcement reverses policies put in place near the end of the Biden administration. In July 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland imposed a moratorium on scheduling federal executions while the department reviewed its execution policies. On Dec. 23, 2024, President Joe Biden commuted 37 of the 40 federal death-row sentences to life without parole, leaving three federal inmates subject to execution at that time. Then, on Jan. 15, 2025, Garland rescinded the pentobarbital protocol addendum, citing “significant uncertainty” about whether pentobarbital would avoid unnecessary pain and suffering.

The federal government had previously resumed executions during Trump’s first term after adopting the pentobarbital protocol, carrying out 13 executions between July 2020 and January 2021. Federal execution procedures have been heavily litigated before, and federal law ties executions to the law of the state where the sentence was imposed, setting up legal questions that have historically drawn court challenges.