U.S. President Donald Trump [Reuters=Yonhap News]

The Donald Trump administration has decided to allow firing squads as a means of federal execution.

According to Reuters, the U.S. Department of Justice stated in a report on the 24th (local time) that it would add firing squads, electric chairs, and gas chambers as alternative execution methods, citing difficulties in procuring lethal injection drugs.

Currently, lethal injection is considered the most common method of execution in the U.S., and this move aims to broaden the practical options for execution in cases where drug procurement becomes difficult.

The Department of Justice also ordered the reinstatement of the procedure for using the drug pentobarbital, which was adopted as a lethal injection drug during the first Trump administration.

The Department of Justice argues that executions using pentobarbital do not violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against "cruel and unusual punishments" and comply with constitutional standards.

While some have pointed out that pentobarbital can cause pulmonary edema, inflicting extreme suffering on the condemned, Bloomberg reported that the Department of Justice dismissed these objections, asserting that the drug induces immediate unconsciousness before the inmate experiences pain.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement that day, "The previous administration (the Biden administration) failed to fulfill its duty to protect the American people by refusing to carry out the highest penalty for the most dangerous criminals, including terrorists, child murderers, and police killers."

Earlier, President Trump revived the federal death penalty during his first term after a 17-year hiatus, carrying out executions for 13 death row inmates just before his term ended.

The subsequent Biden administration ordered a moratorium on federal executions in 2021 and announced last-minute commutations for 37 out of 40 federal inmates sentenced to death before the end of its term.

However, after President Trump's re-election, the Department of Justice lifted the moratorium on executions, and President Trump has been pursuing executions in several high-profile cases, including the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, according to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

However, public support for the death penalty in the U.S. has been declining over the past few decades, the WSJ added.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, an anti-death penalty organization, 11 states in the U.S. have abolished the death penalty over the past 20 years, and a recent Gallup poll showed that the percentage of people in favor of the death penalty reached its lowest point in 50 years, the WSJ reported.