The Justice Department announced on 24 April 2026 that federal executions may now be carried out by firing squad, electrocution, or nitrogen gas asphyxiation — a historic expansion of permitted methods that puts three federal death-row inmates on notice after decades of near-exclusive reliance on lethal injection.
The announcement, signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi, cited persistent difficulty obtaining the barbiturate drugs used in lethal injection protocols. Under the updated guidelines, federal executioners may choose any method permitted in the state where the execution is taking place, or fall back on federal alternatives if the state offers none. The Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington-based research organization, confirmed that this marks the first time in U.S. history the federal government has formally authorized firing squads in its own protocols. "This normalises an irreversible punishment that the rest of the democratic world has abandoned," Robert Dunham, the center's executive director, told NPR on 24 April 2026.
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