DOJ Expands Federal Death Penalty Methods to Include Firing Squads

The DOJ said it would 'restore its solemn duty to seek, obtain, and implement lawful capital sentences—clearing the way for the Department to carry out executions once death-sentenced inmates have exhausted their appeals.'

Kelly McBride Ni

Published: 4/24/2026, 9:25:01 PM EDT

DOJ Expands Federal Death Penalty Methods to Include Firing Squads — The U.S. Department of Justice in Washington on Aug. 7, 2025. (Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times)

The U.S. Department of Justice announced that it plans to expand and resume use of the federal death penalty, including reinstating execution protocols, authorizing new capital prosecutions, and adding potential execution methods.

In a press release on April 24, the DOJ said it has rescinded the Biden-Garland moratorium on federal executions. The DOJ said it would “restore its solemn duty to seek, obtain, and implement lawful capital sentences—clearing the way for the Department to carry out executions once death-sentenced inmates have exhausted their appeals.”

The Biden-Garland moratorium on federal executions commuted 37 of 40 federal death sentences to life without parole in December 2024. Since then, the remaining federal death row inmates include Dylann Roof, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and Robert Bowers.

“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,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, the Department of Justice is once again enforcing the law and standing with victims,” he said.

Among the changes, the DOJ directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to reinstate lethal injection using pentobarbital and expand execution protocols to include additional methods, such as the firing squad.

The DOJ said they directed the BOP to “examine relocating or expanding federal death row or constructing an additional execution facility to permit additional manners of execution.”

The DOJ is also developing legislative proposals to accelerate capital cases.

Capital Punishment 'Essential' for Functioning Justice System: Trump Administration

In its newly released report, “Restoring and Strengthening the Federal Death Penalty,” the DOJ said President Donald Trump recognizes capital punishment as “an essential tool” in a functioning criminal justice system.

“Not only does it ‘deter and punish those who would commit the most heinous crimes,’ but death, more than any other punishment, communicates the immeasurable value of innocent human life,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said. “It also provides a sense of closure and finality to the families of murder victims.”

Blanche said that by the end of Trump’s first term, the DOJ had executed 13 people convicted of murder.

Among those executed was Keith Dwayne Nelson, who kidnapped 10-year-old Pamela Butler while she rollerbladed outside her home. He forced her into his pickup truck, took her to a wooded area behind a church, and sexually assaulted her before strangling her with a wire.

After witnessing his execution, Butler’s mother told reporters, “I feel at peace now, and I feel Pammy’s soul is at peace and that she can rest.”

The DOJ said additional steps in the coming weeks will include potential rule changes to shorten the time between sentencing and execution, and limit when clemency petitions can be filed.

Federal executions have more recently been carried out at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, which houses the federal execution chamber. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 50 federal executions have been carried out since 1927, including 34 before 1988 using methods such as hanging, electrocution, and gas.

Since 2000, 16 federal executions have taken place, with two in 2001, one in 2003, and 13 carried out between July 2020 and January 2021. Those executed included Daniel Lewis Lee, Wesley Ira Purkey, and Lisa Montgomery, who were convicted of crimes including multiple murders, killing children, and kidnapping resulting in death. All were executed by lethal injection at Terre Haute.

The DOJ says in the coming weeks it will also “revise the Justice Manual to return the Department to its historic approach to capital crimes, streamline the process for seeking death sentences, and ensure appropriate consultation with victims’ families.”