The Department of Justice on Friday announced it will bring back firing squads as a permitted method of federal execution, readopt the lethal injection protocol used during President Trump's first term, and streamline internal processes to speed up capital punishment cases. The sweeping policy shift reverses the Biden-era moratorium on federal executions and marks the most aggressive expansion of death penalty enforcement in years.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche framed the changes as a direct rebuke of the prior administration's record. The DOJ formally ordered the Bureau of Prisons to broaden execution protocols beyond lethal injection, adding options such as firing squads and gas asphyxiation, the Washington Times reported. The policy implements Trump's executive order resuming federal capital punishment after he rescinded Biden's moratorium.

The message from the Justice Department is blunt: the federal government intends to execute the worst criminals on death row, and it intends to do so without the delays and drug-supply bottlenecks that have stalled lethal injections across the country.

What the DOJ announced

Newsmax reported that the DOJ's Friday statement laid out three main actions: readopting the first Trump administration's lethal injection protocol, expanding that protocol to include additional execution methods such as the firing squad, and streamlining internal processes to expedite death penalty cases.

The department's statement spelled out its rationale in plain terms:

"These steps are critical to deterring the most barbaric crimes, delivering justice for victims, and providing long-overdue closure to surviving loved ones."

Beyond the headline addition of firing squads, the DOJ said it will reauthorize the use of pentobarbital, the single drug used in all thirteen federal executions carried out between July 2020 and January 2021 during Trump's first term, the New York Post reported. Officials described the firing squad option as a practical safeguard: if a specific lethal injection drug becomes unavailable, the government can still carry out a lawful sentence.

Federal prison officials were also ordered to relocate or expand federal death row, or build an additional facility, to accommodate the new execution methods, the Washington Examiner reported. The administration plans to streamline federal habeas review, limit clemency timelines, and reduce the gap between sentencing and execution.

Blanche takes aim at Biden-era policy

Acting Attorney General Blanche did not mince words about what he sees as the previous administration's failure. In his statement, he drew a sharp line between the Trump DOJ's approach and the Biden-Garland moratorium that halted all federal executions for four years.

"The prior administration failed in its duty to protect the American people by refusing to pursue and carry out the ultimate punishment against the most dangerous criminals, including terrorists, child murderers, and cop killers."

That language is pointed, and intentional. Biden not only imposed the moratorium but commuted 37 federal death-row sentences before leaving office, a move that drew fierce criticism from victims' families and law enforcement groups. The Trump DOJ's Friday announcement reads as a systematic reversal of every element of that policy.

Blanche added that the department is "once again enforcing the law and standing with victims" under Trump's leadership. The framing places the DOJ squarely on the side of families who waited years for sentences to be carried out, only to watch the prior administration shelve them.

Why firing squads, and why now

The addition of firing squads is the detail drawing the most attention, but the practical reasoning behind it is straightforward. For years, states and the federal government have struggled to obtain lethal injection drugs. Pharmaceutical companies have restricted sales, anti-death-penalty activists have pressured suppliers, and legal challenges have tied up protocols in court.

The DOJ's own language acknowledged the supply problem. Its statement said the expanded protocol "will help ensure the Department is prepared to carry out lawful executions even if a specific drug is unavailable." In other words, the government does not want a drug shortage to become a de facto moratorium.

The policy also authorizes gas asphyxiation as an additional method. Together, the new options give federal authorities multiple avenues to carry out death sentences without relying on a single pharmaceutical supply chain that opponents have spent years trying to disrupt.

The broader context matters. Courts continue to grapple with the boundaries of federal punishment. A recent federal ruling barring the death penalty in the Mangione murder case highlighted the legal friction that still surrounds capital punishment at the federal level.

A record to build on, and a moratorium to bury

During Trump's first term, the federal government executed thirteen death-row inmates between July 2020 and January 2021, the first federal executions in seventeen years. The pace was historic. All thirteen were carried out using pentobarbital, the drug the DOJ is now formally reauthorizing.

Biden halted that momentum on his first day in office with a moratorium. His attorney general, Merrick Garland, ordered a review of federal execution protocols that never produced a public conclusion. Then, in the final weeks of his presidency, Biden commuted dozens of death sentences to life without parole.

The Trump DOJ's Friday announcement effectively dismantles every layer of that moratorium. It restores the drug protocol, adds new methods, speeds up internal review, and orders physical expansion of death row facilities. The Breitbart report on the policy described the move as ending the moratorium outright.

The administration's willingness to assert federal authority on this front fits a broader pattern. The DOJ under Trump has moved aggressively to reshape federal prosecutorial power, as seen in its recent firing of judges' unanimous pick for a top federal prosecutor in Eastern Virginia.

What comes next

Several questions remain unanswered. The DOJ did not specify a timeline for when the first execution under the restored protocols might take place. It did not name which death-row inmates are closest to having their sentences carried out. And it did not detail the precise internal processes being streamlined, only that the goal is to reduce delays.

Legal challenges are all but certain. Death penalty opponents have fought every federal execution in court, and the addition of firing squads will draw fresh litigation. The administration appears to be betting that multiple approved methods will make it harder for any single legal challenge to block all executions simultaneously.

The executive branch's willingness to push its authority in the face of judicial resistance is not new to this administration. Clashes between the Trump DOJ and federal judges have become a recurring feature of the current term, from deportation orders to high-profile case dismissals.

For victims' families who have waited years, sometimes decades, for justice, Friday's announcement is a promise that the federal government will no longer treat a death sentence as a suggestion. Whether the courts let that promise stand is the next fight.

When the law says death, the government ought to mean it. For four years, it didn't. Now it does.