President Donald Trump signed an executive order on January 20, 2025, restoring the federal death penalty and directing the Justice Department to expand execution methods to include firing squads, electrocution, and nitrogen gas, according to the Department of Justice and multiple reports. The executive order instructs Attorney General Pam Bondi to pursue the death penalty for all crimes of a severity demanding its use, specifically targeting those who kill law enforcement officers or commit capital crimes while in the country illegally, according to research sources. The Justice Department directive also instructs the Bureau of Prisons to use pentobarbital for lethal injections and consider other methods including firing squads and electrocution, the department said. The directive considers using nitrogen gas after Alabama performed the world's first execution with it in 2024, according to the Justice Department. The Bureau of Prisons is directed to consider building new facilities for federal executions, the department added. Legal experts say the executive order is short on details and faces legal and bureaucratic barriers, according to multiple reports. According to www.themarshallproject.org, Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, described the order as lacking important details and sounding like campaign rhetoric. Miriam Gohara, a clinical professor of law at Yale Law School, told the same outlet that the order's directive on conditions of confinement for commuted inmates raises legal concerns.
During his first term, Trump executed 13 federal inmates, the most in over 120 years, according to multiple reports. Only three other people had been executed by the federal government since 1963 before Trump's first term, multiple reports indicate. Biden commuted the sentences of 37 federal death row inmates, leaving only three: Robert Bowers, Dylann Roof, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, according to multiple reports. The order calls for evaluation of the placement of those 37 commuted inmates and whether they can be charged with state-level capital crimes, according to research sources. The order also calls on the Attorney General to ensure states have sufficient access to lethal injection drugs and to seek to overrule Supreme Court precedent that limits capital punishment, research sources indicate. In 2020, the first Trump administration expanded federal execution methods to include hanging, electric chair, gas chamber, and firing squad, according to research sources. Hanging was the execution method of choice throughout most of American history, used in America's last public execution in 1936, research shows. The electric chair was first authorized in 1888 by New York state as a humane alternative to hanging, according to research.
The order lacks important details and sounds like campaign rhetoric.
The U.S. is set to see its first execution by firing squad in 15 years on March 7, 2025, according to five research sources. Brad Sigmon will be executed by firing squad in South Carolina on that date, the sources said. Sigmon was sentenced to death in 2002 for killing his ex-girlfriend's parents with a baseball bat, according to research. He chose death by firing squad under a 2021 law that allows inmates that option, research indicates. According to South Carolina's firing squad protocol, the condemned will have a hood put over his head and a target placed on his heart; three volunteers will shoot him from 15 feet. The use of a firing squad has raised concern over observer safety and objections as a relic of a brutal past, according to research sources. The resumption of death by firing squad is part of a search for 'better' execution methods amid concern over botched lethal injections and drug scarcity, according to someone who has studied execution methods. South Carolina carried out three executions by firing squad in 2025, the first since 2010, according to multiple reports. Forty-seven people were executed in the United States in 2025, the highest number in 16 years, research shows. In 2025, 39 executions were by lethal injection, five by nitrogen hypoxia, and three by firing squad, according to research. Louisiana conducted its first execution in 15 years in 2025, using nitrogen gas, research indicates. Arizona carried out the first executions in a state with a Democratic governor in office since 2017, according to research. Mississippi executed Richard Gerald Jordan, the state's longest-serving death row inmate after 49 years, research shows. Florida executed 19 people in 2025, a record for the state, according to research. Christopher Sepulvado and Ralph Menzies died of natural causes before their scheduled executions in 2025, research indicates. Robin Dion Myers and Tremane Wood received commutations of their death sentences in 2025, according to research.
In other developments, President Trump is sending Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff to Islamabad for peace talks with Iran, according to CNN sources. Vice President JD Vance will not attend the talks, CNN sources said. Iranian Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf will not attend the meeting, CNN reported. The US sees Ghalibaf as the lead negotiator with the final say, so they chose not to send Vance, according to CNN.
The order's directive on conditions of confinement for commuted inmates raises legal concerns.
Sweden's government, led by Energy Minister Ebba Busch, wants to expand nuclear power, according to two media sources. UK Business Minister Peter Kyle says he is in advanced talks with Sweden about purchasing Rolls-Royce mini nuclear reactors, Kyle said. Rolls-Royce's small modular reactors (SMRs) can be manufactured in factories and assembled on site, reducing construction time, according to two media sources. Separately, ICA is recalling shredded smoked ham (180g) from its own brand due to incorrect date labeling, the company said in a press release. The affected ham packages have best-before date 10-06-2026 and packaging date 17-04-2026, according to ICA. Customers who bought the ham are asked to return it to the store, claim on ICA's website, or contact customer service, ICA said.
The Stockholm stock exchange ended the week with the OMXS index down 1%, according to two media sources. AB Volvo's stock rose 1.5% after reporting increased order intake, two sources said. Telia's stock rose 1%, according to two media sources. Electrolux stock fell about 25% after announcing a 9 billion SEK rights issue, two sources reported. Oil prices fell after reports of possible new US-Iran talks, with Brent crude around $106 per barrel at 5:30 PM, according to two media sources. European stock markets were mostly down on Friday, two sources said. Exchange rates: 1 euro = 10.82 SEK, 1 USD = 9.23 SEK, according to two media sources.
A bus crashed near the Pentagon on Friday morning local time, according to two media sources. The number of injuries has not been confirmed.