Deborah Denno comments to the Christian Science Monitor on an investigation into the botched lethal execution of Clayton Lockett, which initially suggested a problem with the injection, not the drugs.
In many respects, such strong words are surprising. The death penalty is “part of the identity of our country … a tree deeply rooted in the ground,” says Deborah Denno, a professor at Fordham University School of Law in New York.
But the fact that Oklahoma botched another execution in January, when a convicted man complained that his body “was burning” after the drug injections – and that the White House weighed in Wednesday – makes this execution stand out, she says.
A lot attention had already been paid to Lockett’s execution because of the legal wrangling about Oklahoma’s determination to keep its suppliers secret. Medical experts had warned that Oklahoma’s lethal injection cocktail was untested and likely to be “highly problematic,” Professor Denno says.
Read the entire Christian Science Monitor article.