The US Department of Justice is bringing back executions by firing squad, electric chair and gas at the federal level

The US Department of Justice has lifted the moratorium on federal executions and allowed the death of those sentenced to death by firing squad, electric chair and gas. The department said it was reinstating the duty to seek, obtain and carry out lawful death sentences. The Ministry of Justice explained the decision by the need to restore justice for the victims.

“The previous administration failed in its duty to protect the American people by refusing to prosecute and impose capital punishment on the most dangerous criminals, including terrorists, child killers and police killers. Under President Trump's leadership, the Department of Justice is once again enforcing the law and supporting victims,” said Acting. O. Attorney General Todd Blanche.

The Justice Department blamed the administration of previous President Joe Biden and former Attorney General Merrick Garland for dismantling the federal death penalty. The department said Biden imposed an indefinite moratorium on executions over concerns about “unnecessary pain and suffering” with pentobarbital, and prosecutors have declined to seek death sentences in a number of capital cases. The department also criticized Biden's decision to commute the sentences of 37 of 40 federal prisoners without consulting all of the victims' families.

Authorities have vowed to speed up death penalty cases and restore the use of pentobarbital as it was during Trump's first term. Human rights activists have previously criticized the use of this drug. They claim that when pentobarbital is used, prisoners may experience excruciating suffocation before death.

According to Reuters, the expansion of the list of methods is associated with difficulties in obtaining drugs for lethal injections. Pharmaceutical companies are refusing to sell drugs that could be used in executions to prisons, forcing authorities to look to less regulated suppliers.

In the coming weeks, the U.S. Justice Department wants to propose rules that would allow states to move faster on federal appeals in death penalty cases. This could shave years off the time between conviction and execution. The department also wants to prohibit convicts from asking for clemency until the main stages of the appeal are completed and to rewrite the internal instructions of the Ministry of Justice to simplify the request for the death penalty in new cases.

Trump promised to lift Biden's federal moratorium on the death penalty during the election campaign:

“Once I take office, I will direct the Department of Justice to aggressively pursue the death penalty to protect American families and children from violent rapists, murderers and monsters. We will once again become a country of law and order!”

Opponents of the death penalty have criticized the Trump administration's decision to add new methods of execution. Cassandra Stubbs, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Death Penalty Project, said the Justice Department has effectively endorsed execution methods that are widely condemned for being cruel and "unnecessarily causing severe pain."

At the same time, at the state level, the death penalty in the United States continued to be used during the federal moratorium. Most executions in the country are carried out by state authorities, not the federal government. In recent years, some have begun to bring back alternative methods, including the firing squad and gas, because of problems with lethal injection drugs.