Even for Donald Trump, it’s a startling, even bizarre, idea.
Before leaving office in less than two months, he wants to bring back firing squads — and the electric chair — for federal executions, according to ProPublica.
The proposal is just one of dozens of so-called “midnight regulations” Trump wants to impose before Jan. 20.
“The bottom line is the Trump administration is trying to get things published in the Federal Register, leaving the next administration to sort out the mess,” Matthew Kent told the independent news website. Kent tracks regulatory policy for the progressive group Public Citizen.
“There are some real roadblocks to Biden being able to wave a magic wand on these.”
The administration is currently on pace to finalize 36 major rules in its last three months.
Other proposed changes range from speeding up chicken-processing lines to barring transgender people from federally funded homeless shelters to loosening water-saving standards for bathroom showerheads. That last is a pet peeve for Trump, who has often asked supporters at campaign rallies if they’d ever gotten in the shower “and no water came out.”
The firing-squad proposal “has raced through the process with little notice but unusual speed — and deadly consequences,” ProPublica says, noting that it would “reintroduce firing squads and electrocutions for federal executions, giving the government more options for administering capital punishment….”
The rule could be finalized any day, but it won’t affect the administration’s plans to put five prisoners to death before Biden is inaugurated — if they take place, they will all be lethal injections.
Notably, President-elect Biden opposes the death penalty and will seek to eliminate capital punishment for federal crimes, so even if firing squads are returned to the rule book, they are unlikely to be used.
