Outgoing attorney general Merrick Garland is ordering the U-S prison bureau to abandon its lethal injection protocol for federal executions.

During President Trump’s first administration, the bureau used an anti-seizure medication called pentobarbital to execute 13 prisoners. The executions occurred at a facility in Terre Haute, where all federal executions take place.

Garland’s order cited findings by medical experts who’ve documented a potentially excruciating condition called pulmonary edema in autopsies of executed prisoners.

One of the prisoners executed in Terre Haute was Alfred Bourgeois.  Media witnesses said his body heaved and moved uncontrollably as the pentobarbital took effect — something his attorney Shawn Nolan warned might happen in litigation.

Garland’s memo, however, conceded that there is uncertainty about whether prisoners experiencing pulmonary edema are conscious as it occurs.

The new Trump administration could reinstate the pentobarbital protocol, which was put in place by former Attorney General Bill Barr.