Professor Deborah Denno was quoted in an Associated Press article following the execution of Arkansas inmate Kenneth Williams.
“This is a new chapter in this story, and every time we have a new chapter it makes it more and more difficult to obtain drugs and the states’ options get more and more constrained,” said Deborah Denno, a professor at Fordham University School of Law and an expert on the death penalty.
Denno said the drug companies have been “incredibly disruptive” in the past. She cited a Missouri lawsuit in 2013 in which intervention by the drugmaker Fresenius Kabi USA was able to stop the state from using propofol, a drug that’s never been used in an execution.
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Denno said the perceived issues in Thursday’s execution of Kenneth Williams, who lurched and convulsed 20 times during the lethal injection, will also signal to drug companies that there might be issues in the state’s protocol.