Firing squads, despite the optics, may actually be less barbaric than other methods, according to those who have looked at the data. Some critics say it also could expose what some call hypocrisy in Americans’ attitudes toward the death penalty. Deborah Denno discusses in the Christian Science Monitor.
There’s a concession that there’s a problem with lethal injection so states are going back to methods that seemed barbaric at one point but, relative to lethal injection, maybe don’t look as bad anymore,” says Fordham University law professor Deborah Denno, whose work on the constitutionality of execution methods has been cited numerous times by Supreme Court justices.
“There has to be some recognition that no matter what you introduce within a prison system, it’s a prison, a place where [the ultimate sanction]is implemented by people who are not experts, often by people who have no clue what they’re doing,” says Denno. “People say firing squad is so brutal, but, at least as far as we know, it’s probably the most humane, it kills people the quickest, and it’s one we have expertise for.”
Read the full Christian Science Monitor article here.