The US is reintroducing controversial death row execution method

The US Department of Justice has made a shock recommendation to reintroduce a death row method that hasn't been used in centuries.

The recommendation has been made in a bid to 'strengthen the death penalty', according to a statement from acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

One of the moves is to reintroduce the use of a firing squad to carry out executions, in addition to the current method of administering pentobarbital for lethal injections.

They are also advising that electrocution, and potentially gas, could be used to expedite executions, according to the Independent.

Back in 2024, the state of Alabama performed the world's first execution using nitrogen gas.

The Justice Department said the decision to reintroduce firing squads 'will help ensure the Department is prepared to carry out lawful executions even if a specific drug is unavailable.'

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement that the move will 'strengthen the death penalty' (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP via Getty Images)

As it stands, only five states allow death row prisoners to choose death by firing squad, and since 1976, only four people have been executed using this method.

Brad Sigmon was executed by firing squad on March 7, 2025, for murdering his ex-girlfriend's parents in 2001, and his execution was the first by firing squad in 15 years.

Just a month later, Mikal Mahdi was executed by a three-person firing squad, however there were accusations that his was 'botched'.

An autopsy found only two wounds on his chest, instead of three, and revealed that neither of the bullets directly hit his heart which is where the executioners are meant to aim for.

His attorneys say this caused 'excruciating conscious pain and suffering' for up to a minute.

He had been sentenced to death for the the murder of James Myers, an off duty public safety officer in 2004.

Hours after he entered the White House for his second term, President Donald Trump signed an executive order, requiring the the attorney general to seek the death penalty in future cases 'for all crimes of a severity demanding its use.'

The move came after Joe Biden had placed a pause on executions and pardoned, or cancelled the sentences, for more than three dozen people on death row.

Trump's Department of Justice claims the Biden administration 'failed the American people' when a pause was made on executions, with sentences commuted (Photo by Earl Gibson III/Deadline via Getty Images)

Blanche said Biden's administration 'failed in its duty to protect the American people' and the Department of Justice called Biden's decisions 'extraordinary steps to weaken, delay, and dismantle the death penalty.'

Some 13 people were executed during Trump's first term, which was the most under any president in more than 120 years.

Since 1963, only three other people have been executed by the federal government.

Following Biden's pause and pardons, only three men remain on death row, including Robert Gregory Bowers, a gunman who killed 11 people at Pittsburgh synagogue that was deemed to be an antisemitic attack; Dylann Roof, another shooter who killed nine African Americans during a prayer service in North Carolina; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the brains behind the Boston Marathon bombing.

The Death Penalty Information Center says two dozen states in the US do not carry out the death penalty, and says that 'states that impose the death penal­ty are not safer than states that do not use the death penal­ty'.

Pope Leo has spoken out in support of activists who are against the death penalty (Photo by Simone Risoluti - Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images)

The Justice Department also hit out at 'anti-death penalty activists' they accuse of 'undermining the effectiveness of the death penalty.'

“There is much that can be done to preserve and enhance the death penalty’s role in deterring heinous crimes, bringing closure to victims’ families, and affirming society’s most fundamental values,” the report adds.

Pope Leo XIV is one such critic, who said that 'the dignity of the person is not lost even after very serious crimes are committed.'

On X this week, the Pope wrote: I offer my support to those who advocate for the abolition of the death penalty in the United States of America and around the world. I pray that your efforts will lead to a greater acknowledgement of the dignity of every person, and will inspire others to work for the same just cause.

He added: "The Catholic Church has consistently taught that each human life, from the moment of conception until natural death, is sacred and deserves to be protected."

The Pope added that the right to life is 'the very foundation of every other human right'.