Deborah Denno comments to the Deseret News on the ways states were scrambling to figure out a new way to execute the death penalty after a United States supplier announced last month it would discontinue production of a key drug used in lethal injection.
Most states chose the three-drug cocktail because it was a more clinical method to administer death, Fordham University law professor Deborah Denno told the New York Times. Other methods like hanging or the gas chamber, are considered gruesome. The use of the electric chair declined after reports that it made inmates eyes pop out of their sockets. One inmate’s head burst into flames.
Denno said there is one method that is quick, effective and doesn’t depend on Europe: the firing squad.
“It’s the most humane procedure,” Denno said. “It’s only because of this Wild West notion that people are against it.”
Read the entire Deseret News story.