Deborah Denno quoted in a Sky News-Australia article on two executions that were postponed at the 11th hour to await a ruling from the US Supreme Court, delaying what would have been the first since a botched lethal injection.
‘There’s not sufficient information provided on where they’re getting the pentobarbital,’ said Deborah Denno, a lethal injection expert and Fordham University law professor.
‘The secrecy laws prevent the kind of information that we need to even discuss the issue,’ she added.
In Oklahoma, Clayton Lockett, a convicted killer and rapist, was put to death by lethal injection in a process that took 43 minutes, well over the expected time of a little over 10 minutes.
An independent autopsy found that the medical team failed to set an IV multiple times and ultimately perforated a vein.
This, says Denno, ‘definitely shows that there’s problems with the execution team, with people who simply don’t know what they’re doing.’
Read the entire Sky News-Australia article.