Trump Revives Death Penalty Halted by Biden... Introduces Firing Squad and Electric Chair

U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to resume executions by firing squad and lethal injection, following an executive order reinstating the federal death penalty that he signed on his first day in office.

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The New York Times (NYT) reported that Acting U.S. Attorney General Blanche Todd stated on the 24th (local time) that former President Joe Biden's decision to halt executions caused "significant harm to the rule of law."

The U.S. Department of Justice suspended federal inmate executions in 2021 and halted the use of pentobarbital injections. In the final days of his term, former President Biden commuted the sentences of 37 out of 40 federal death row inmates.

Blanche explained, "Additional execution methods that the Federal Bureau of Prisons should consider implementing include firing squad, electric chair, and gas chamber. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that each of these methods is consistent with the Eighth Amendment," adding that the use of pentobarbital (a type of anesthetic used for executions) will be reinstated for federal inmates and that additional execution methods such as firing squad will also be permitted.

Pentobarbital has become a standard method of execution since it was first used in Oklahoma in 2010. The Eighth Amendment is a provision in the Bill of Rights that prohibits "cruel and unusual punishments." Senator Richard Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, criticized this move as a "stain on history."

Previously, during Trump's first term, 13 federal death row inmates were executed. However, the Trump administration faces one obstacle. By law, the federal government can only carry out executions in states that permit the death penalty, and only by using the method authorized by that state.

For years, federal executions have been carried out in Indiana, a state that only allows lethal injection. While firing squad executions have been rarely used in the United States, a few states have recently approved it as an alternative when lethal injection drugs are unavailable. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, firing squad executions were carried out in Utah in 1977, 1996, and 2010, respectively. However, South Carolina, which approved firing squad executions in 2021, executed three people by this method last year.

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