Professor Deborah Denno was quoted in a Newsweek op-ed discussing the death penalty, its decline, and ways it could be changed for the future.
In addition to legal change, certain factors emerging over the last decade have slowed the execution process, even in southern and western states where the death penalty remains popular. Are we seeing the gradual extinction of the death penalty? If so, is that a good or bad thing? Or are we mired in an era of complications and problems that simply need to be fixed before we can return to confidence in reliable legal mechanisms and consequences?
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[A] barrier to execution efficiency involves the favored method of lethal injection. Around 2011, European manufacturers began banning the export of key drugs used in the lethal mix. American companies have shown wavering enthusiasm in picking up the slack. A spate of botched injections in 2014 sparked unsettling news stories and a flurry of legal challenges to the method long considered the most humane.
As lethal injection supply chains falter, states are expanding their range of options. As the electric chair loses acceptability, South Carolina, which provides for inmates to choose their method, has reauthorized firing squads. If that bristles with even greater old-school harshness, consider the view of Fordham law professor Deborah Denno, who can understand why states are going “back in time” to avoid the uncertainties of lethal injection. The trained marksmen of a firing squad, she says, are a better bet for a swift end than prison volunteers administering a dicey drug cocktail. “We don’t know if the person is going to be skilled in lethal injection in the way police or military are trained to shoot to kill.”