Deborah Denno comments to USA Today on the details of the Ohio execution of rapist and murderer Dennis McGuire which have forced legal and ethical questions about the use of a combination of drugs never before applied in a U.S. capital punishment case.
“The very first lethal injection 32 years ago was problematic,” said Deborah Denno, a law professor and death penalty expert at Fordham University in New York City.
Still, lawsuits filed by families of executed inmates claiming the violation of the Eighth Amendment, which bans cruel and unusual punishment, are tough to win, said Denno.
One of the biggest challenges is that families must prove there was damage and suffering to the executed individual.
“The worst part of that issue is that you don’t know,” she said. “The person dies.”
Also, Denno noted that agencies involved in executions are often protected by immunity, making details about the incident difficult to obtain.
“There is no incentive for the Department of Corrections to offer information or find out what went wrong,” she said. “This family is going to have to get around this barrier.”
Read the entire USA Today story.