Deborah Denno comments to the Associated Press on the Virginia Department of Corrections decision to add a new drug to be used in executions to replace one that is in short supply nationwide.
“Until 2009, all states were basically using the same three-drug protocol developed in Oklahoma in 1977,” said Deborah Denno, a Fordham University law professor who has studied execution methods around the country. “Since December 2009, we’ve seen the most rapid change ever with the lethal execution protocol since it was first introduced.”
She added that “rather than being fueled by a concern over humaneness, most of this has been fueled by drug availability.”
Denno and Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center both said they knew of no other state that has substituted a drug for pancuronium bromide, which is used to paralyze the muscles.
The entire Associated Press story ran on July 27, 2012. The article also ran in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.