Deborah Denno comments to The Independent on how the European Union, almost by accident, is increasingly thwarting efforts by the 32 states with capital punishment on their books to keep the conveyor belt from death row to death chamber running by withholding the drugs traditionally used for lethal injections.
“It is ironic the way that Europe has had the kind of impact that it has been having,” Deborah Denno, an expert on execution methods at the Fordham University Law School in New York, said this week. “And it has been huge.”
But she also stressed that the risks inherent in the rush that is now on to muddle through with untested drug-mix protocols.
“The scramble is making it very difficult for departments of corrections to conduct executions and as a result they are resorting to desperate measures. It’s trial and error,” Ms Denno said.
Read the entire Independent story.
