DOJ Expands Federal Execution Methods to Include Firing Squads

The Justice Department announced it will expand federal execution options to include firing squads and other alternative methods, while reinstating the Trump administration’s pentobarbital lethal injection protocol.

DOJ said it is “expanding the protocol to include additional manners of execution such as the firing squad” and directing the Bureau of Prisons to examine facility changes needed to accommodate multiple execution methods. The announcement came as part of a broader effort to strengthen the federal death penalty.

The precise wording matters. DOJ used “readopting” to describe the return of the Trump-era pentobarbital lethal injection protocol, not the firing squad. For alternative methods, the department’s language is about expanding protocol options, not switching the default federal execution method.

The Protocol Expansion

A DOJ report released Thursday recommends the Bureau of Prisons modify its execution protocol to include “additional, constitutional manners of execution that are currently provided for by the law of certain states.”

The report specifically names three methods BOP should consider adopting: firing squad, electrocution, and lethal gas.

DOJ’s stated rationale is drug availability. The department says alternative methods should be added so executions can proceed even if a specific lethal-injection drug is unavailable. Reuters summarized the rationale as difficulties in getting drugs for lethal injections and a need to ensure operational readiness if a preferred drug cannot be obtained.

Reuters reported that Biden had commuted 37 of 40 federal death-row prisoners, leaving three men still under federal death sentence. With only three active federal cases, the protocol expansion reads as much as future-case positioning as immediate operational need.

The Legal Framework

The announcement builds on regulatory changes already in place. DOJ finalized rules in November 2020 allowing federal executions by lethal injection or “by any other manner prescribed by the law of the State in which the sentence was imposed.”

Current federal regulations at 28 CFR 26.3 already permit execution methods authorized by state law under the federal death penalty statute. The legal opening for firing squads existed before Thursday’s announcement.

This regulatory framework creates an unusual federal-state dependency. The federal government can only use alternative execution methods if the state where the crime occurred has already authorized those methods. States that prohibit firing squads or electrocution effectively constrain federal execution options within their borders.

A January 2025 DOJ review under Attorney General Merrick Garland concluded there was “no present reason to modify or rescind” the 2020 execution regulations, but recommended halting pentobarbital use pending further review. This represents a different policy approach than the current expansion, though the legal framework remained intact across administrations.

The 2026 DOJ report notes that five states currently provide for the firing squad and cites Idaho’s 2025 move making firing squad its primary method effective in 2026. The report also cites the Supreme Court’s 1878 ruling in Wilkerson v. Utah holding that execution by firing squad does not violate the Eighth Amendment.

What Comes Next

The announcement represents operational preparation rather than an immediate shift in execution methods. DOJ did not say the next federal execution will use a firing squad, but that it wants the option available.

BOP must now develop protocols for alternative methods and potentially modify facilities at the federal execution chamber in Terre Haute, Indiana. The U.S. Marshals Service notes that modern federal executions have used lethal injection since the federal death penalty resumed in 2001.

Today’s move is best read as operational readiness and policy signaling rather than a newly created legal authority. The regulatory envelope already existed under the 2020 rule. What is new is the directive to BOP to build out the protocol and the facilities to exercise options the department had on paper but not in practice.