Deborah Denno comments to The Tennessean on the lack of trained professionals used to administer lethal injections.
“That would make sense, wouldn’t it?,” said Fordham Law School Professor Deborah W. Denno, who has studied the death penalty for the last 20 years. “I think a lot of it is sheer ignorance on the part of the DOC. Once you start changing your protocol, you’re conceding you’ve had a problem.
“And who do you really ask about how you kill someone? It’s not like there’s really a group of doctors ready to do this.”
In her studies, Denno has found that firing squads are the most humane method of execution. There have been three such executions in the United States since 1976.
“It’s the only method that is actually carried out by a trained professional,” she said. “This is the irony of the death penalty in this country. People think a firing squad is too barbaric. They think it’s too Wild West.”
This story appeared in The Tennessean (Nashville) on December 6, 2010.