US should use firing squads, electrocution as execution methods, Justice Department says

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Source: Reuters

By Jonathan Allen

April 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. government should add firing squads, electrocution and gas asphyxiation as methods of executing people convicted ‌of the gravest federal crimes, the Department of Justice said on ‌Friday in a report that noted difficulties in getting drugs for lethal injections.

The report was a ​fulfillment of President Donald Trump's promise to resume capital punishment in his second term. In his first term, which ended in 2021, he resumed it after a 20-year gap, executing 13 federal prisoners with lethal injections in his final few ‌months in office.

Acting Attorney General ⁠Todd Blanche, who released the report, has authorized seeking death sentences against nine people after Trump rescinded a moratorium on ⁠federal executions by his predecessor, Joe Biden, the department said.

"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," it said in a statement.

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/justice-department-readopts-firing-squads-151838985.html

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They left out drawing and quartering and burning at the stake.

Just another attempt at looking tough by an administration full of chickenhawks.

[Ocelot II]

1. What, no guillotines? No public hangings?

How are we going to satisfy our blood lust if all this government-sanctioned murdering is done on the down-low?

[kimbutgar]

24. I'd like to see a guillotine used on him Marie Antoinette style.

[31st Street Bridge]

52. What a mentally diseased shithole this country has become

Maybe our bloodlust would ease if the guilty, criminal rich people were actually punished for once.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. What about beheading?

🎶A short, sharp, shock.🎵

[hlthe2b]

3. Electrocution might be the most cruel method ever used in the US outside of botched hangings.

Yes, lethal injunctions have also been a horrendous lesson in ineptitude and cruelty from the selection of drug(s) to the implementation, to the total lack of (lethal) medical intervention if things go REALLY bad.

But, electrocution... I won't describe what I know about the complications that have been experienced in these attempts, but it is discussed when accidental electrocution is taught in medical seminars for those in the ERs/EDs. And, lest one think the latter is merely a need for CPR and all is fine, oh my, you would be quite wrong. The amount of tissue and organ damage (not to mention the possible lack of oxygen prior to cardiac resuscitation is often so horrific that if they live, it might be as much as a year in intensive care and skilled nursing or Burn units before they even start to recover. But, I digress. Suffice to say it is horrible. (Stay out of the way of lightning and power lines).

[wcmagumba]

4. I totally oppose the death penalty, it makes us as bad as the murderer (imo)...

Do not kill...

[riversedge]

17. I agree. Give the convicted of horrible crimes hard labor and life in prison IMHO.

[Grins]

20. And it's cheaper to keep them in prison

The costs are racked up via appeals that go on for more than a decade and often more.

[Lovie777]

5. Current administration and GQP are taking us backward.....................

Blue states are going forward.

[Miguelito Loveless]

6. And pay per view

The Ellisons have to make money.

And electrocution means we need more coal-fired plants to meet demand.

[displacedvermoter]

30. Like I said, half time at the Army-Navy Game

Maybe Kegsbreath or Don Jr. can throw the switch?

[littlemissmartypants]

7. When do the crucifixions start?

[bluestarone]

8. I could agree with BOTH methods if

We are talking about the ONE GUY that deserves them.

[intheflow]

9. I approve all of these methods

as long as they're applied directly to the treasonous orange and his cruel, alcoholic lackies when their convictions come down. But no one else deserves to die in these ways.

[Traildogbob]

10. Yep

Miller at the top of the list.
Not really. (Not really sarcastic, or not really pro execution?)

[Dulcinea]

50. Same here.

I propose we test them out on Stephen Miller.

[dave99]

11. As long as shitstain and his fellow billionaires are the first in front of them

[EarthFirst]

12. Why not just keep the UFC stadium on the south lawn and make them a public affair!

Pay Per View
Advertising
Merchandise

[City Lights]

13. How about public stonings for adulterers? nt

[niyad]

44. That has already been proposed, but ONLY for the women.

[City Lights]

48. Why doesn't that surprise me?

[SamKnause]

14. Twisted sick fucks.

[Sneederbunk]

15. What happened to stoning?

[Mysterian]

16. Let the traitors be hoisted by thier own petards

when the rule of law is re-established in the USA.

[Talitha]

18. Geeze, why not just send them to a gravel pit with Kristi Noem?

[Lemon Lyman]

19. -

And they should be pay per view too!

[purr-rat beauty]

21. Great....start with all traitors

Wanna get this party started?

We the People have the first say.

[DonCoquixote]

22. American love cruelty

I have no doubt that they will innovate new methods, especially if some company has the patent and can charge the taxpayer more..I can almost hear alex carp grinning.

all the same, to quote gilbert and sulllivan, I am sure we all have a little list, considering many of these people did treason and espionage that would make Mata Hari blush.

[Grins]

23. Yet another example of Trump's lifelong sadism.

He loves violence! As only a psychopath would.

It’s constantly in his tweets. He threatens everyone. It’s always his first option.

Remember in 2017 when he threatened “fire and fury like the world has never seen” over N. Korea? And to the G8 so the whole world could see and hear?

Dr. John Gartner called it (well - Him!) malignant, narcissistic sadism, and that he gets off on it.

(On a side note I also think it’s part of Republicans DNA.)

[VanceFan]

25. OK

Do Trump first. On the WH lawn. Sell tickets.

[Smilo]

26. The cruelty is the point

I am against the death penalty - period. It will never stop people killing others, it will never lead to a better society - so why do it. To me the simple answer is blood lust. It really isn't finding justice for a family, or demanding a life for a life - if that were the case there would be a lot of dead law enforcement officers, security guards, ICE agents, etc.

And if even one person on death row is found innocent that should stop all executions.

[sop]

27. Don't forget the war criminals and child rapists.

[Initech]

28. Whatever happened to "thou shalt not kill?".

[COL Mustard]

29. Hell, let's get full on medieval.

Why not the rack, burning at the stake, and for all the ladies out there, the dunking stool? You know who you are!

[displacedvermoter]

31. I like that ritual in The Mummy where they locked

the doomed guy in a sarcophagus and dumped in man eating beetles...

Let's get full on Middle Kingdom...

[AZLD4Candidate]

33. Middle Kingdom is China. China never did that, but had other inventive torturous death penalties.

[displacedvermoter]

34. Middle Kingdom -- actually probably early New Kingdom --

in Egypt, around 1200 BC.

It was a movie, probably didn't really happen there either, though.

[AZLD4Candidate]

32. Hanged, drawn and quartered works too. Why not the Iron Bull? Or death by milk and honey?

Come on, Republicans. . .if you're going to take us back 150 years, let's go all in.

[displacedvermoter]

45. Milk and honey?

A new one on me...

[AZLD4Candidate]

46. Put someone in a box with their head sticking out then put the box on water. Feed them nothing but milk and honey

and let them shit and piss themselves in the box. The aroma of the milk and honey and the human waste will attract things that will eat them alive.

This was a Roman death penalty.

[displacedvermoter]

47. Maybe it will kill our King Shitter

It could be called the Big Mac and Diet Coke method?

[AZLD4Candidate]

55. I prefer death by painful natural causes that cause him to shit, piss, drool, and puke on himself while

his brain rots from the inside out while he is sued into poverty, dying lonely and forgotten behind baseboard of a soiled bathroom in a gutted out building, with his hand in Putin's pants.

[Orrex]

35. Only if we start with adjudicated rapists and 34-count felons

[eppur_se_muova]

36. "We'll try it on the Cabinet first, see how it goes, then go from there." nt

[FoxNewsSucks]

37. I'd pay to see that used on Krasnov, his fucking grifter family,

every member of his liquor cabinet, every crony he's appointed, every useless billionaire and all the media that put that piece of shit in the White House.

Upon conviction and sentencing, of course.

Start with them.

[TexasBushwhacker]

38. If we're going to continue this barbaric practice

I think the choice should be left up to the prisoner.

[EndlessMaze]

39. I'd die pretty quickly and with extreme suffering, if.....

If you sentenced me to listening to the Orange maggot do one of his recent so called speeches or press briefings.

[CBHagman]

40. There is no element of human progress that this administration isn't targeting for destruction.

Libraries, museums, science, meteorology, etc., etc.

And on top of all those attempts to roll back progress and destroy good and useful things, they want to be as performatively brutal as possible.

[Wolf Frankula]

41. Should beheading be added for disloyal heads of state

like tRump?

[perdita9]

42. No outrage from the "pro life" community

How very non surprising

[lonely bird]

43. True

Considering they are not and never will be pro-life.

[JHB]

49. Frankly, given some potential recipients, I'm tempted to add...

...outfitting with concrete galoshes and dumped into the Gulf of Mexico.

[GreenWave]

51. The above forms of capital murder are approved by the NRA and your local power thieves.

capital murder: state conspires with jury to kill someone in cold blood after months of premeditation.
Power thieves: go ape do-do when dome homes and other forms of energy savings are ever mentioned

[no_hypocrisy]

53. What? No water dunking and Iron Maiden?

[PJMcK]

54. Let's go for beheadings

Bring back Madame Guillotine!

Or how about throwing the victims into wood chippers? That would save space.

Show it all on TV. After all, if we the People are giving life and death power over to the government, we should be able to see the government’s actions.
≠==============

In all seriousness, the death penalty is barbaric, antiquated, ineffectual and reflects profound weakness. It should be abolished.

[timms139]

56. I'm all for

these things but to only be used for Elected officials who commit crimes against the country and it's security .Like presidents and cabinet members and members of the house and senate and judicial branch . Trump should have already been tried and convicted for the theft of classified documents .I wonder if the scientists missing could be because of Trump's reckless handling of those documents .

[azureblue]

57. should we execute

repeat and unrepentant pedophiles? I say yes..

[IcyPeas]

58. Somebody look and see if trump bought any stocks in

Electric chairs recently.

[tonekat]

59. trump doesn't know about Nicolae Ceaușescu's ending?

I would think that would be a deterrent to totalitarian tendencies. And trump is angling for most likely to get the same ending.

Maybe someone should make a short attention span video and show him.

[pecosbob]

60. I prefer gibbets...lasts longer.

[IzzaNuDay]

61. What about treason?

Had January 6 happened a century or two before, there would be few of those participants alive to talk about it.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

62. MaddowBlog-Justice Department advocates firing squads as a method of federal execution

Team Trump is apparently comfortable rolling back the clock, not because firing squads have become more sanitary, but because it just doesn’t seem to care.

On executions, there’s been a generational pattern of adopting methods considered less gruesome and less barbaric than previous methods.

But when it comes to firing squads, Trump, Blanche, and Co. are rolling back the clock — because they just don’t seem to care.
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-04-27T17:34:15.976Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/justice-department-advocates-firing-squads-as-a-method-of-federal-execution

During Joe Biden’s presidency, the Democratic administration took steps to end federal executions, including a measure that converted 37 death row inmates’ sentences to life in prison. Donald Trump vowed to reverse course and use federal powers to kill more people. To that end, the Republican president and his team have authorized seeking death sentences against 44 defendants.

But as important as these developments are, it’s also notable how, exactly, Team Trump is prepared to proceed with these executions. The Associated Press reported:

The Justice Department will adopt firing squads as a permitted method of execution as the Trump administration moves to ramp up and expedite capital punishment cases, officials said Friday. […]

The federal government has not previously included firing squad as a method of execution in its protocols, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Five states currently allow executions by firing squad: Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah.

.....Time will tell what becomes of the shift and whether there are related Eighth Amendment court fights, but the developments reminded me of something Rachel Maddow told viewers back in 2014, when Republican policymakers advanced similar measures at the state level.

“Over time, we’ve executed people by a number of different methods in this country,” she explained. “And every time, as we evolve out of one old method and into a new one, we tell ourselves that the new one is a more humane way of doing it, a more sanitized way of doing it. It’s a more certain way of killing people. And then, eventually, to use a legal term, our evolving standards of decency grow us out of our latest method of killing people and into a new one.”

The observation stuck with me because it’s both true and important. There’s been a pattern of American officials agreeing to kill American citizens in ways considered less gruesome and less barbaric than previous methods. Hangings gave way to firing squads, which gave way to the electric chair, which gave way to lethal injection and so on.....

But in 2026, Trump and his team are apparently comfortable rolling back the clock, not because firing squads have somehow become more sanitary, but because they just don’t seem to care.