Share Source: Kevin Dietsch/Pool via AP On Thursday night, a press release from the Department of Justice announced that Attorney General Merrick Garland was issuing a memo imposing a moratorium on federal executions. The attorney general also ordered a review of recent policy changes from the Trump administration. Such a review is set to include: A review coordinated by the Office of Legal Policy of the Addendum to the Federal Execution Protocol, adopted in 2019, which will assess, among other things, the risk of pain and suffering associated with the use of pentobarbital. A review coordinated by the Office of Legal Policy to consider changes to Justice Department regulations made in November 2020 that expanded the permissible methods of execution beyond lethal injection, and authorized the use of state facilities and personnel in federal executions.