Deborah Denno was quoted in a WRAL article about California’s lethal injection protocol.
Deborah Denno, a professor at Fordham University School of Law and an expert on lethal injections, was among those who said recent revisions to the state’s proposed regulations still don’t cure underlying problems that can lead to botched executions.
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Denno said California’s regulations would still conceal the identities, training and experience of the execution team, crucial information since the deadly drugs must be properly measured, mixed and administered to ensure a painless death.
“It’s a complicated process, and everything has to be going right, and it’s so easy in a prison context for everything not to go right,” she said. She equated it to letting amateurs provide anesthesia for surgery.
Denno and other experts said the new rules eventually will have to pass the scrutiny of U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel, who halted executions in the state in early 2006 and ordered prison officials to improve their lethal injection process.
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“In California, it’s become a symbolic death penalty state,” Denno said. “Whether that is going to change or not is unpredictable.”