Trump signs death penalty order directing attorney general to help states get lethal injection drugs

President Donald Trump signed a sweeping execution order on the death penalty Monday, directing the attorney general to "take all necessary and lawful action" to ensure that states have enough lethal injection drugs to carry out executions. In the order signed in the first hours of his return to the White House, Trump said "politicians and judges who oppose capital punishment have defied and subverted the laws of our country."

A moratorium on federal executions had been in place since 2021, and only three defendants remain on federal death row after Democratic President Joe Biden converted 37 of their sentences to life in prison.

The Trump administration carried out 13 federal executions during Trump's first term, more than under any president in modern history.