Another condemned inmate has chosen to die by firing squad, putting South Carolina on track to set a national record for the shortest interval between uses of the firing squad in modern times.
Fordham Law Professor Deborah Denno, death penalty expert and founding director of Fordham Law’s Neuroscience and Law Center, shares her thoughts with The Post and Courier on the resurgence and increasing favor of firing squads executions.
Deborah Denno, a Fordham Univesity law school professor who has been studying the death penalty for over three decdes, said she won’t be surprised if firing squads executions become more common.
With more states having adopted the firing squad — and others such as Arizona considering its use — the stigma associated with this method has decreased, said Denno.
She said people are also seeing the rise in botched executions involving the newer methods, and they’re looking for more reliable alternatives.
“Simply because it’s old doesn’t mean that it’s worse,” Denno said. “Electrocution and lethal gas and nitrogen hypoxia and, of course, lethal injection, are just so much worse.”