Professor Deborah Denno comments on Arizona’s potential use of cyanide gas for executions in an article published by ABA Journal.
Arizona officials have ‘gone to considerable lengths to revive the state’s mothballed gas chamber,’ according to a recently released report by the Guardian.
Arizona has not confirmed that it plans to use the gas, according to the New York Times. But the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry said in a statement it was ‘prepared to perform its legal obligation and commence the execution process as part of the legally imposed sentence, regardless of method selected.’
Deborah Denno, a professor at the Fordham University School of Law, told the Washington Post that gas executions take longer, and cyanide gas is ‘the most gruesome’ of all execution methods in the United States.