Deborah Denno quoted in Gizmodo from a ProPublica story about the Supreme Court lethal injection case Glossip v. Gross, and the credibility of its key witness whose300-page expert witness report included more than 150 pages of printouts from drugs.com, an online consumer website whose disclaimer reads, “not intended for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.”
Ultimately, though, what the intense battle over Evans’ qualifications reveals are the larger forces at work in the country’s ongoing capital punishment debate. “The choice of using a method of execution that is so dependent on the medical profession and pharmacology has bitten the Departments of Corrections in the back” said Deborah Denno, a death penalty expert and professor of law at Fordham University. “The Departments of Corrections are pretty desperate to find experts who can support their point of view. States have had a lot of trouble finding experts to come forward, and when they do come forward, they are not qualified.”
Read the entire Gizmodo article.
