The Trump administration says federal executions could rely on firing squads more often, adding to several other punishment methods already permitted in parts of the US.
A 48-page memo released on Friday (April 24) shows the US Department of Justice (DOJ) intends to widen the execution options available in federal prisons to include firing squads, gas asphyxiation and electrocution.
The memo argues the policy is meant to ‘strengthen’ capital punishment while ‘deterring the most barbaric crimes, delivering justice for victims, and providing long-overdue closure to surviving loved ones’, according to the BBC.
By expanding the list of authorized procedures, the DOJ says it can continue to carry out ‘lawful executions’ in situations where lethal injection drugs — including pentobarbital — cannot be obtained.
“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,” a memo from the DOJ obtained by Fox News read.
“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.”
At present, the Death Penalty Information Center lists four main execution methods that are authorized around the country.
Firing squads have deep historical ties in the US, including use during the Civil War as punishment for mutiny and as a deterrent against desertion, the Associated Press reports.
Only five states currently permit execution by firing squad: Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah.
In March 2025, Brad Sigmon — convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents in 2001 — became the first person in nearly 15 years to be executed by firing squad.
He selected that option instead of the electric chair or lethal injection.
Idaho has also advanced legislation that would make the firing squad the state’s default execution method.
Lethal injection remains the most frequently used execution method in the United States.
This form of capital punishment typically involves administering a sequence of drugs — often a barbiturate, a paralytic, and potassium chloride — to the condemned prisoner.
The Death Penalty Information Center says 1,471 executions have been carried out by lethal injection since 1976.
Those put to death by the method include serial killer John Wayne Gaycy, Monster inspiration Aileen Wuornos, and Clarence Ray Allen, one of the oldest people on death row.
The National Conference of State Legislatures notes that Texas was the first state to use lethal injection.
States where lethal injection is authorized include: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and Wyoming.
In South Carolina, lethal injection may be elected as an alternative method, if available.
The Federal Government and the US Military also authorize lethal injection.
South Carolina defaults to electrocution, and eight additional states allow the electric chair as an alternative method.
They are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.
Virginia previously used the electric chair, but after the state repealed the death penalty in March 2021, it is no longer used.
In the 2010s, the supreme courts in Georgia and Nebraska found that the electric chair conflicts with their state constitutional bans on cruel and unusual punishment.
Some death row prisoners have opted for the electric chair, in part due to worries about lethal injection.
Among them were Edmund Zagorski and David Earl Miller, who were executed in Tennessee in 2018.
In 2024, Alabama became the first state to execute a prisoner using nitrogen gas.
Since then, four other states — Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Oklahoma — have approved execution by nitrogen hypoxia, and Louisiana is the only other state to have used it, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle.
Hanging was once the leading execution method in the United States.
But it began to decline in the late 1800s, widely criticized as barbaric, outdated, and cruel.
The Death Penalty Information Center says the most recent hanging took place on January 25, 1996, in Delaware.