Fordham Law Professor Deborah Denno, death penalty expert and founding director of Fordham Law’s Neuroscience and Law Center, spoke to The Post and Courier about whether the execution of the first death row inmate to be executed by firing squad in the last 15 years would open the door to more-frequent firing squad executions.
Of the 144 civilians executed by firing squad in the course of U.S. history (with records dating back to 1608), only two were reported to have been botched, said Deborah Denno, a Fordham University law school professor who has been studying capital punishment for over three decades.
By contrast, she said, the botch rate for lethal injection — the prevailing modern execution method — is rising. These happen in different ways, including when executioners fail to find a suitable vein in which to administer the drugs, jab an inmate in various parts of their body while seeking an access point, mix up the drugs to be injected or use incorrect doses.
Denno said more death row inmates are now living through these hourslong ordeals while strapped to a gurney, though the execution process should ideally take minutes.
She attributed these problems to executioners’ ineptitude in carrying out lethal injections, as well as states’ increasing experimentation with drugs because of the difficulties in sourcing them.
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Firing squad executions have also remained on the fringes, Denno said, because states are resistant to relying on a method that dates back to the colonial era. She said that would be an “embarrassing” admission that governments cannot come up with a more humane execution method in the 21st century.
“That’s a concession that we really are bad at killing people,” Denno said.
Both Lain and Denno said it’s hard to predict whether Sigmon’s execution would open the door to more-frequent firing squad executions in the United States.