The Trump administration’s Justice Department announced Friday it is authorizing firing squads, electrocution, and gas asphyxiation for federal executions. Three people remain on federal death row. Their names are Dylann Roof, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and Robert Bowers.
Those are the three inmates Joe Biden chose not to spare.
In his final days, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 people then on federal death row — the largest mass clemency of death-sentenced prisoners in the modern era. He excluded only those convicted of terrorism or federal hate crimes, leaving three men to face whatever the next administration decided to do.
What the DOJ announced
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a directive Friday ordering the Bureau of Prisons to modify its execution protocol to include firing squads, electrocution, and gas asphyxiation alongside lethal injection. The first Trump administration used lethal injection to carry out 13 federal executions in its final months, more than any president in modern history.
“The prior 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.
The DOJ framed the directive as part of an effort titled “Restoring and Strengthening the Federal Death Penalty.” Former Attorney General Pam Bondi had already lifted Biden’s execution moratorium in February 2025. Blanche, who became acting AG after Trump dismissed Bondi in early April, went further Friday — expanding permissible methods and authorizing federal prosecutors to seek death sentences in 44 pending cases.
None of the three remaining death row inmates have scheduled execution dates.
The three who remain
Biden excluded three inmates from his January 2025 commutations because their convictions involved terrorism or federal hate crimes:
Dylann Roof was sentenced to death for the 2015 murders of nine Black parishioners at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. He opened fire during a Wednesday evening Bible study, later telling investigators he had hoped to start a race war.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was convicted for the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, which killed three people and wounded more than 260, including 17 who lost limbs. A federal appeals court had overturned his death sentence; the Supreme Court reinstated it in 2022.
Robert Bowers was sentenced to death for the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh, which killed 11 worshippers and wounded six others. It remains the deadliest antisemitic attack in United States history.
All three have pending legal proceedings that would need to be resolved before any execution could proceed.
Pope Leo responded the same day
Hours after the DOJ announcement, Pope Leo XIV addressed capital punishment in a pre-recorded video message delivered to DePaul University in Chicago to mark the 15th anniversary of Illinois abolishing the death penalty.
“We affirm that the dignity of the person is not lost even after very serious crimes are committed,” Leo said, calling the death penalty “inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.”
The Catholic Church has held this formal position since Pope Francis revised its catechism in 2018. Leo, the first American-born pope, made no direct reference to the Justice Department announcement, but his statement landed on the same day, placing the two institutions in blunt public contrast. We covered Leo’s first Easter address as pope earlier this month, which previewed the same emphasis on human dignity that runs through Thursday’s video message.
The White House and DOJ did not respond to Leo’s remarks.
Sources 6 cited · 2 primary
- The Justice Department Takes Actions to Strengthen the Federal Death Penalty
- Video Message of the Holy Father — 15th Anniversary of the Abolition of the Death Penalty in the State of Illinois
- The DOJ will allow firing squads as Trump administration pushes to step up federal executions
- Trump's Justice Department is bringing back firing squads for federal executions
- Trump administration seeks to add firing squad to federal execution methods
- Pope Leo reiterates opposition to death penalty on same day U.S. approves firing squads
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