Deborah Denno comments to Al Jazeera on the scarcity of pentobarbital, the drug used for almost all of the lethal injections in the U.S., which has left states using untested workarounds that have come into question by human-rights groups and death-penalty experts.
“It’s a desperate act on the part of states,” says Deborah Denno, a Fordham University law professor. “It’s a dangerous act because it’s extremely risky. These states just can’t go jumping from drug to drug to drug.”
“The compounded drugs [in Texas]and the drugs that Florida is using, this was never what this lethal-injection procedure was supposed to be about,” Denno says. “States started going to lethal injection because they wanted to mimic medical procedures, but this process has been turned on its head. It’s getting worse and riskier than it ever has been.”
Read the entire Al Jazeera story.