OAN Staff Lillian Mann
1:00 PM – Friday, April 24, 2026
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced that, as part of a broader effort to “strengthen” the federal death penalty system, it will expedite capital cases and expand execution methods to include firing squads as an authorized method.
On Friday, the DOJ revealed that it is looking to “streamline the process for seeking death sentences” and reduce the number of years between conviction and execution. The announcement added that, in its current view, the use of pentobarbital—the drug used in lethal injections—does not violate the Eighth Amendment.
The DOJ said it is working to reinstate federal death penalty policies from President Donald Trump’s administration that were reversed under former President Joe Biden, while also releasing a report accusing the Biden DOJ of “weakening, delaying, and dismantling the death penalty” and causing “untold harm to the public.”
“Today, the Department of Justice acted to 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 DOJ statement wrote.
“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,” the statement continued.
“More than any other punishment, a death sentence also conveys the full gravity of a crime and affirms the principle that human life is of the highest value by reserving the ultimate penalty for the most egregious betrayals of human dignity and communicating with moral clarity that society will not tolerate such violations,” the DOJ reported.
After Todd Blanche was elevated to acting Attorney General following the departure of Pam Bondi, he permitted the top federal prosecutor in California to seek the death penalty for three alleged MS-13 members who were charged with killing a victim who was cooperating with authorities.
“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,” Blanche said in a statement.
At the end of his term, Biden had granted clemency to 37 of 40 federal inmates facing death sentences, altering their sentences to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The three inmates who were not granted clemency include the man convicted in the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting, the gunman responsible for the 2015 mass shooting at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, and the surviving perpetrator of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
On the second day of his second administration, President Trump signed an executive order directing the death penalty to be utilized “for all crimes of a severity demanding its use,” and directed the then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, to seek the death penalty in cases involving capital crimes committed by illegal immigrants present in the U.S.
Furthermore, in February 2025, then-Attorney General Bondi lifted the federal moratorium on the death penalty that was previously implemented by the Biden administration, which ordered federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in applicable cases.
Five states allow for death by firing squad for those who have exhausted the appeal process. In March, a South Carolina man who was convicted of a double murder became the fourth person to be executed by firing squad since the 1970s.
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