DOJ Seeks Death Sentences for Nine After Ending Moratorium

The U.S. Department of Justice announced on Friday that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has authorized seeking death sentences against nine people after rescinding the Biden-era moratorium on federal executions. The department said it is readopting the lethal injection protocol used during the first Trump administration and expanding execution methods to include firing squads, while also streamlining internal processes to expedite death penalty cases. "This 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," Blanche said in a statement. President Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office directing the death penalty to be pursued for crimes of severity demanding its use, particularly cases involving the murder of law enforcement officers and capital crimes committed by illegal immigrants in the U.S. During his first term from 2017 to 2021, Trump restarted federal executions after a nearly 20-year pause. President Joe Biden instituted a moratorium on executions in 2021 so his administration could review policies, and at the end of his term, he granted clemency to 37 of the 40 federal inmates facing death sentences, commuting their sentences to life in prison without parole. The three inmates who did not receive clemency were the perpetrators of the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting, the Mother Emanuel Church mass shooting in Charleston, and the surviving Boston Marathon bomber. The department also published a report criticizing the Biden Justice Department for causing "untold harm to the public" through its efforts to weaken the death penalty.