The Justice Department’s move to bring back firing squads and other methods for federal executions exposes a stark divide over what “justice” means in the United States, and whether expanding ways to kill prisoners solves — or deepens — the system’s moral and legal problems.

Conservative-leaning outlets frame the change as a restoration of order and a correction of Biden-era restraint. Fox News highlights a DOJ memo declaring it acted to “restore its solemn duty” to implement lawful capital sentences and to “expedite death penalty cases.”¹ The Washington Examiner describes a broader push to “strengthen” enforcement of capital punishment, including new methods such as firing squads, reauthorizing pentobarbital, and even relocating or expanding death-row facilities.² The Blaze stresses that the move fulfills Trump’s 2025 executive order to “restore the implementation of the death penalty at the federal level” after Biden’s moratorium, casting the firing squad as a “traditional” method aligned with a tough-on-crime agenda.³

Right-wing commentary also widens the lens, portraying the policy as a necessary response to “violent rapists, murderers, and monsters” and emphasizing that it reverses Biden’s decision to pause executions and commute the sentences of most federal death-row inmates.⁴ This framing ties procedural changes — more methods, faster timelines — to a moral obligation to victims and public safety.

The sole liberal-leaning piece from CBS News is more descriptive than oppositional, but its emphasis invites skepticism. It notes that DOJ justifies the expanded methods as “critical to deterring the most barbaric crimes, delivering justice for victims, and providing long-overdue closure,” directly linking them to Trump’s directive to seek death “for all crimes of a severity demanding its use,” including cases involving the murder of police and certain crimes by undocumented immigrants.⁵ By foregrounding the breadth of this mandate and the reversal of Biden’s clemency for 37 of 40 death-row inmates,⁵ the piece implicitly raises questions: Is deterrence evidence-based, or ideological? Is “closure” being used to justify more and faster executions?

Similarities and differences

Across the spectrum, coverage agrees on the facts: firing squads, gas asphyxiation, and other methods are being reintroduced; prior Trump-era protocols are being readopted; and internal processes are being streamlined to speed up executions.¹²⁵ The split is interpretive. Conservative outlets largely celebrate a return to a “solemn duty” and stronger punishment, while the liberal report, by stressing the scope of Trump’s order and the rollback of Biden’s moratorium, invites readers to question whether expanding the machinery of death is compatible with evolving norms — and with the risks of irreversible state error.

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1. Justice Department Announces It's Readopting the Firing Squad as a Means of Execution — DOJ memo says it acted to “restore its solemn duty” and “streamlining internal processes to expedite death penalty cases.”

2. DOJ restores and expands death penalty for federal cases — Describes new methods such as firing squads, reauthorizing pentobarbital, and plans to relocate or expand federal death row.

3. Ready, aim, FIRE: Trump DOJ to restore old-fashioned death penalty means — Says Trump DOJ is reinstating the firing squad to fulfill a 2025 executive order after Biden’s moratorium.

4. US to Bring Back Gas Chambers, Electric Chairs, Firing Squads for Federal Executions — Notes DOJ will re-adopt firing squads, electrocution, gas asphyxiation and reverse Biden’s pause on executions.

5. DOJ reinstates firing squads, pentobarbital for federal executions — Reports DOJ says expanded methods are “critical to deterring the most barbaric crimes” and details Trump’s directive and Biden’s prior clemency for 37 of 40 death-row inmates.