US justice dept adds firing squads for federal executions

The US Justice Department has said that it is seeking to expand the use of the death penalty in federal capital cases and add the firing squad, electrocution and gas to lethal injection as methods of execution.

"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," acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche said.

Under US President Donald Trump, "the Department of Justice is once again enforcing the law and standing with victims," Mr Blanche said in a statement.

The Republican president ended a 17-year pause in federal executions in 2020, during his first term in office.

There were 13 executions by lethal injection during Mr Trump's final six months in power, more than under any US leader in 120 years.

Before leaving the White House in January 2025, Democratic president Joe Biden, an opponent of the death penalty, commuted the death sentences of 37 of the 40 inmates on federal death row.

Mr Trump, on his first day in the White House for his second term, called for an expansion of the use of the death penalty "for the vilest crimes".

The death penalty is normally carried out at the state level in the United States but the federal government can also seek execution for a limited set of crimes.

Five US states currently authorise the firing squad for executions but only one - South Carolina - has used the method in recent years.

Nine states allow electrocution but this method has not been used since 2020.

Two states have executed inmates recently by nitrogen hypoxia, which involves pumping nitrogen gas into a face mask, causing the prisoner to suffocate.

The use of nitrogen gas as a method of capital punishment has been denounced by United Nations experts as cruel and inhumane.

The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others - California, Oregon and Pennsylvania - have moratoriums in place.

The three men whose death sentences were not commuted by Mr Biden were one of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombers, a gunman who murdered 11 Jewish worshippers in 2018 and a white supremacist who killed nine Black churchgoers in 2015.