BREAKING: DOJ announces it's reinstating death by firing squad as execution method

The Department of Justice announced on Friday that it has readopted firing squads as a means to carry out federal death sentences. The DOJ said that the move was part of an effort to "restore its solemn duty to seek, obtain, and implement lawful capital sentences."

A press release from the department stated, "Among the actions taken are readopting the lethal injection protocol utilized during the first Trump Administration, expanding the protocol to include additional manners of execution such as the firing squad, and streamlining internal processes to expedite death penalty cases. These steps are critical to deterring the most barbaric crimes, delivering justice for victims, and providing long-overdue closure to surviving loved ones."

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement, "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. Under President Trump’s leadership, the Department of Justice is once again enforcing the law and standing with victims."

The announcement came alongside the release of a report titled "Restoring and Strengthening the Federal Death Penalty." In the report, Blanche said that "despite federal prosecutors consistently seeking and defending capital sentences under the leadership of both political parties, the Department had not prioritized implementing them."

The report stated that under the Biden administration, then Attorney General Merrick Garland "imposed a moratorium on federal executions, directed prosecutors not to seek death sentences, and dismantled the federal government’s capital punishment apparatus. He also recommended that President Biden commute the lawful death sentences of thirty-seven convicted murderers, and he did so without fully considering the views of the victims’ families, the communities that endured these crimes, or the prosecutors who tried these cases. These actions inflicted untold damage on countless lives and, ultimately, on the public’s confidence in the rule of law itself." 

The report from the Office of Legal Policy called for the DOJ to readopt the use of Pentobarbital in lethal injections, and that the Bureau of Prisons should modify "its execution protocol to include additional, constitutional manners of execution" to ensure that "the Department is prepared to carry out lawful executions even if a specific drug is unavailable."

In regard to firing squads, the report stated, "With lethal injection protocols facing supply issues, some states have reinstated the use of firing squads, another historically common method for capital punishment." The report noted the long history of such an execution, and that "in recent years, death row inmates have begun to argue that execution by firing squad is a feasible, readily implemented alternative to lethal injection that carries fewer risks."