Deborah Denno was quoted in an Associated Press article about the execution by electric chair of murderer Edmund Zagorski.
Tennessee’s chair, which hasn’t been used since 2007, is just one of many execution devices Leuchter worked on between 1979 and 1990, according to an article by Fordham University professor Deborah Denno in the William and Mary Law Review. In addition to electric chairs, Leuchter built, refurbished and consulted on gas chambers, lethal injection machines and a gallows for at least 27 states.
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Denno, a law professor at Fordham who has studied execution methods for more than 25 years, said Leuchter filled a void. Often “the most qualified people don’t want to be involved” in executions, she said.
Even after he was no longer welcome as a prison contractor, Denno said prison officials continued to contact Leuchter for help “because they literally had no one else to go to.”
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Denno said electric chairs have “a history of botches that has only gotten worse.”
Story was also published here.