Ready, aim, FIRE: Trump DOJ to restore old-fashioned death penalty means
In an effort to fulfill President Donald Trump's 2025 executive order to restore the implementation of the death penalty at the federal level, the Department of Justice has decided to bring back a means of execution often associated with a blindfold and a cigarette.
After a moratorium on the death penalty under the Biden administration, the Trump DOJ has reintroduced the traditional firing squad method as well as the lethal injection protocols adopted in Trump's first term.
President Trump has called for the death penalty in specific cases, including the vicious murders of Iryna Zarutska ... and Charlie Kirk.
In a memo released Friday, the DOJ claimed that the purpose of these measures is "to expedite death penalty cases" by "clearing the way for the Department to carry out executions once death-sentenced inmates have exhausted their appeals."
"The prior administration failed in its duty to protect the American people by refusing to pursue and carry out the ultimate punishment against the most dangerous criminals, including terrorists, child murderers, and cop killers," said a statement from acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. "Under President Trump’s leadership, the Department of Justice is once again enforcing the law and standing with victims."
Photo of memorial to Iryna Zarutska; Peter Zay/Anadolu/Getty Images
The memo claimed that the Biden administration, under the direction of Attorney General Merrick Garland, refused to implement the death penalty, even when the administration's own attorneys sought it.
Moreover, shortly before leaving office, President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of nearly every inmate on federal death row. The only three whose death sentences Biden did not commute were 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; Dylann Roof, who murdered nine people in a black church in 2015; and Robert Bowers, who murdered 11 people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.
The DOJ under Trump is now actively seeking the death penalty against dozens of defendants, including three MS-13 gangsters accused of murdering a federal witness, the memo said. Two of the three are in the U.S. illegally.
The administration is even considering erecting a new execution facility.
Since retaking office, President Trump has called for the death penalty in specific state-level cases, including the vicious murders of Iryna Zarutska in North Carolina on August 22, 2025, and Charlie Kirk in Utah on September 10, 2025.
Several states already use the firing squad. In fact, beginning on July 1, Idaho will become the first state to use the firing squad as its main means of execution, while other states like South Carolina offer it as an option to death-row inmates.
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