US adds firing squads for federal executions

Washington: The US Dept of Justice has announced that it will adopt firing squads as a permitted method of execution as the Donald Trump administration moves to ramp up and expedite federal capital punishment. The DoJ is also reauthorising electrocution and the use of single-drug lethal injections with pentobarbital, returning to a protocol utilised during the first Trump administration.

Pentobarbital was used to carry out 13 executions during the first Trump term, a record for any president in modern history. The Joe Biden administration had previously halted its use and imposed a moratorium on federal executions, citing concerns over “unnecessary pain and suffering”. On Friday, the department rescinded that moratorium, stating the previous administration had “eroded” the death penalty.

“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,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. 

The policy shift comes as the administration seeks to replenish a nearly empty federal death row. Before leaving office, President Biden converted 37 death sentences to life in prison, leaving only three defendants on death row. DoJ has already allowed seeking death sentences against 44 defendants. Blan­che has specifically authori­sed the death penalty for nine individuals, including mem­bers of the MS-13 gang.

–AP