Deborah Denno comments to the Ocala Star Banner on the execution of William Happ, which marked the first time in the history of executions in the United States that the anti-anxiety drug Midazolam, commercially known as Versed, was the first drug used in a three-drug protocol.
Most states also have switched to a one-drug protocol, particularly after the failed execution of Romell Broom in Ohio in 2009. Several people tried for two hours to find a vein in which to administer the lethal injection drugs, but they stopped after his cries and screams, said Deborah Denno, a leading national expert on lethal injection at Fordham University in New York.
Denno said that Florida’s own history of botched executions is ample, and should be a check for the state to get in line with what other states are doing in terms of execution protocols.
“You’d think a state with that reputation would be the first to treat (executions) more carefully than they have,” Denno said.
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