The Justice Department said on Friday it was seeking to expand the use of the death penalty in federal capital cases and add the firing squad, electrocution and gas to lethal injection as methods of execution, according to NBC.
Before leaving the White House in January 2025, President Joe Biden commuted the death sentences of 37 of the 40 inmates on federal death row: one of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombers, a gunman who murdered 11 Jewish worshipers in 2018 and a white supremacist who killed nine black church-goers in 2015.
Trump, on his first day back in the White House for his second term, called for an expansion of the use of the death penalty.
Five US states currently authorize the firing squad for executions but only one – South Carolina – has used the method in recent years.
Two states have executed inmates recently by nitrogen asphyxia, which involves pumping nitrogen gas into a face mask, causing the person to suffocate and die.
The use of nitrogen gas as a method of capital punishment has been denounced by United Nations experts as cruel and inhumane.
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others – California, Oregon and Pennsylvania – have moratoriums in place.
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