Deborah Denno comments to National Public Radio about Oklahoma’s decision to move forward with plans to execute a prisoner despite with a different drug, one used to euthanize animals, that has never been tested on people.
The question before the federal court is whether substituting the new drug violates an inmate’s Eighth Amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment.
States outline exactly how the lethal injection process will take place, and some legal experts say officials can’t just change the procedure at will.
“The state is basically experimenting on the execution of a human being using a drug that’s never been used before, and this is really a first,” said Deborah Denno, a law professor at Fordham University in New York.
Listen to NPR’s entire story.