Fordham Law Professor Deborah Denno, death penalty expert and founding director of Fordham Law’s Neuroscience and Law Center, spoke with The Guardian US about the firing squad’s revival and resurgence as a method of execution in the United States.
The promise that execution will be fast and painless is also one reason for the firing squad’s revival. One example of that promise is provided by the law professor Deborah Denno, who says: “The firing squad is the only current form of execution involving trained professionals, and it delivers a swift and certain death.”
She cites “a 1938 Utah study – the only one of its kind”, which “monitored an inmate while he was being executed by a firing squad and it showed the death occurred in under a minute”. That is why “it really should be brought back … if we’re going to continue to have the death penalty.”
Read “The firing squad’s return is a defeat for death penalty supporters” in The Guardian US.