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Death by Firing Squad: Sister Helen Prejean on Trump's Moves to Ramp Up Executions

2026-04-27 News & Politics
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Support our work: https://democracynow.org/donate/sm-desc-yt The Justice Department is bringing back the use of firing squads and lethal injection using pentobarbital as it seeks to expedite and expand federal death penalty convictions and executions. No federal executions have been carried out since 2020, when the first Trump administration broke with over a decade of precedent and executed 13 people on death row. The second Trump administration is now pursuing the death penalty in dozens more cases across the country. Renowned anti-death penalty activist Sister Helen Prejean says Trump's push to restart federal executions is entirely unsurprising. "His first instinct almost always seems to be demonize someone as an enemy and then kill them and destroy them." Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream at democracynow.org Mondays to Fridays 8-9 a.m. ET. Subscribe to our Daily Email Digest: https://democracynow.org/subscribe

Top Comments (10)

@PriscillaRobb 2026-04-27

What sister has said is so true. Most people who got severe penalty were poor people. 😢

194 15 replies
@matthewsutphin7508 2026-04-27

Are we living in Hell? Wtf

121 18 replies
@AstroLogicFlowArts 2026-04-27

What era r we in? It seems like we regressed to ww1, do we give them a smoke then blindfold them b4 we shoot them?

120 10 replies
@karenbaumgartel6077 2026-04-27

The USA, once upon a time the so-called beacon of humanity and sanity is now going backwards. So upsetting and sad to watch!

94 17 replies
@LilPeener 2026-04-27

Oklahoma has tried using nitrogen gas once before and the death is a slow and painful process, your brain slowly dies from a lack of oxygen and your body fight against it with every fiber of your being. Death penalty in general is disgusting, but asphyxiation and electrocution is inhumane torture

73 11 replies
@elfari100 2026-04-27

Beyond the escalation of state violence, I most worry about those wrongly accused and not being able to afford good lawyers. Rich folks don't seem to ever get the death penalty. 2 systems of "justice".

66 6 replies
@StateOfPurgatory 2026-04-27

Bravo Sister

66
@balrog322 2026-04-27

“Capital punishment is imposed discriminatorily against certain identifiable classes of people. There is evidence innocent people have been executed, and evident the burden of capital punishment falls upon the poor, the ignorant and the underprivileged members of society.” —Thurgood Marshall, concurring opinion in Furman v. Georgia.

59 2 replies
@OscarLopez-3 2026-04-27

Thank you Sister Prejean for your words.

45
@LauraLaFauve 2026-04-27

Drumpf is a stochastic murderer. When he causes people to die that's his happy place.

20

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