“Measures taken include re-enacting the lethal injection rules used during the first Trump administration, expanding the rules to include other methods of execution such as firing squad, and streamlining internal processes to expedite death penalty cases,” Reuters quoted the Justice Department statement as saying.
Acting Justice Secretary Todd Blanche (who recently replaced Pam Bondi) has already authorized federal death sentences for nine people, the department announced.
“Under the leadership of President Trump, the Department of Justice is once again enforcing the law and standing on the side of victims,” said Blanche.
During his first term in office from 2017 to 2021, Republican President Donald Trump restored federal executions after a nearly 20-year hiatus. Between 2020 and 2021, the federal government had a total of 13 people executed.
Biden subsequently imposed a moratorium on federal executions, which Trump formally canceled by executive order last January right after taking office. So far, however, no federal executions have taken place during his second term.
At the state level, 27 of the fifty US states have the death penalty, while six of them have imposed a moratorium on executions and do not carry them out.
