Professor Deborah Denno was interviewed by National Public Radio about Oklahoma’s decision to use nitrogen gas as its primary execution method.
SIMON: Many pharmaceutical companies, of course, no longer will sell states the drugs for lethal injections. Is that what prompted this change?
DENNO: It was one of the factors that prompted this change, in addition to the fact that the FDA won’t allow states to import untested drugs. So states couldn’t go outside of the country to get them anymore, and that was a factor as well.
SIMON: Does this have to be worked out legally, ethically, medically?
DENNO: Absolutely. Attorneys have to know how their clients are going to die. It’s never just about the drug or the device. It’s who’s administering it. How is it going to be administered? You know, where is this going to take place? They haven’t specified anything.
SIMON: Professor Denno, is there such a thing as a humane method of execution?
DENNO: I think firing squad is the most humane that we have on the books in this country. We do know that it’s – heart death happens very quickly. There’s relatively less pain. And the irony is the most humane method of execution we have on the books is considered the most barbaric by other people, even though this has been the most widely used method of execution across the world.