Deborah Denno comments to the Wall Street Journal on the approval of a drug used to euthanize animals for use in capital punishment in Oklahoma, a decision that could affect other states scrambling to address a nationwide shortage of a key anesthetic used in executions.
“Given the troubling history and present of lethal injection . . . it is extraordinary that such an important decision [to switch anesthetics]is made in so little time with basically only snippets of medical input,” said Deborah Denno, a professor at Fordham University School of Law who specializes in the law governing lethal injections.
“We have to ask ourselves in this country ─ what is the rush?,” she said.
Read the entire Wall Street Journal story.