Justice Department Reinstates Firing Squads And Pentobarbital For Federal Executions

The Justice Department announced on April 24, 2026, that it will reinstate the single-drug pentobarbital protocol and add firing squads as authorized methods for federal executions in the United States.

The DOJ said the move restores the lethal injection protocol used during the previous Trump administration and expands execution options to ensure alternatives if drugs become scarce. A department report faulted the Biden Justice Department for steps it said "weaken, delay and dismantle the death penalty" and said pentobarbital does not violate the Eighth Amendment. Officials said the shift is intended to "strengthen" the federal death penalty and to streamline internal processes to expedite death penalty cases. There are now three people on federal death row, and the last federal execution took place on January 16, 2021.

The episode traces back to drug shortages and legal fights that halted federal executions in 2003 and to policy shifts under the Trump and Biden administrations. In July 2019, Attorney General William Barr resumed federal executions with a single-drug pentobarbital protocol, leading to 13 executions from July 2020 through January 2021. In November 2020 the Justice Department broadened its rules to authorize firing squads, electrocution and poisonous gas as backups if pentobarbital became unavailable. Attorney General Merrick Garland imposed a moratorium in July 2021, and President Biden later commuted most federal death sentences in December 2024. On January 16, 2025 the Justice Department withdrew the pentobarbital protocol and kept the moratorium in place, and after President Trump took office he issued an executive order directing the Justice Department to restore and vigorously pursue the death penalty.

Mainstream coverage shifted from focusing on legal reviews and moratoriums to noting pragmatic reasons for the change, especially growing difficulties obtaining execution drugs. Reporters and analysts highlighted that the 2020 rule already authorized firing squads and other methods and that the revival reflects both policy preference and supply pressures. Observers on social media were sharply divided, some saying firing squads are less error-prone, others calling the move cruel and politically driven.

Five states currently authorize the firing squad, underlining that the method already exists in some U.S. jurisdictions. How quickly federal executions would resume depends on pending legal challenges and on the small number of inmates now on federal death row.