Source: Fortune.com
Summary
The Justice Department will now permit firing squads as a method of execution, and reauthorize the use of single-drug lethal injections with pentobarbital, reversing the Biden administration’s decision to remove it from the federal protocol. The move is part of a broader push to step up federal executions after a moratorium under the Biden administration. Only three defendants remain on federal death row, and the Trump administration has authorized seeking death sentences against 44 defendants.
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The Trump administration is reviving a rare execution method, firing squads, and reauthorizing the use of pentobarbital, which was previously removed from the federal protocol due to concerns about unnecessary pain and suffering. The move is a reversal of the Biden administration’s decision and is part of a broader push to step up federal executions. The Justice Department says the Biden administration “got the standard and the science wrong” on pentobarbital. The Trump administration is also seeking to carry out executions against 44 defendants, including Dylann Roof, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and Robert Bowers.
The strategy enters a familiar phase: the politics of punishment.
Author: Evan Null
