The Justice Department has ordered the Bureau of Prisons to expand the number of ways inmates on federal death row could be executed, including adding firing squads and gas asphyxiation.

The department has rescinded a Biden-era moratorium on federal executions. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

WASHINGTON - The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has directed federal prisons to expand the range of methods used for executions to include firing squads, gas asphyxiation and electrocution. In a 48-page memo released on Friday, the department says this will "strengthen" the death penalty, "deterring the most barbaric crimes, delivering justice for victims, and providing long-overdue closure to surviving loved ones". The previous administration had placed a moratorium on most federal executions. Before leaving office, former president Joe Biden gave clemency to 37 of the 40 federal death row prisoners. President Donald Trump directed the DOJ to resume seeking executions on his first day in office last year. The memo also defends the use of lethal injection, calling the drug pentobarbital "the gold standard of lethal injection drugs". It has been the default means for federal executions since 1993 but has faced criticism by campaigners as being a cruel means of execution, and there have been challenges in recent…