April 24 (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Justice said on Friday it is taking actions to strengthen the federal death penalty, including firing squads and readopting the lethal injection protocol.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has authorized seeking death sentences against nine people after the Justice Department rescinded a Biden-era moratorium on federal executions, the department said.
“Among the actions taken are readopting the lethal injection protocol utilized during the first Trump Administration, expanding the protocol to include additional manners of execution such as the firing squad, and streamlining internal processes to expedite death penalty cases,” it said in a statement.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, the Department of Justice is once again enforcing the law and standing with victims,” Blanche said.
Republican President Donald Trump restarted federal executions during his first term in office from 2017 to 2021 after a nearly 20-year pause.
(Reporting by Ryan Patrick Jones and Bhargav Acharya; editing by Scott Malone)
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