Deborah Denno (pic­tured), Professor of Law at Fordham University and one of the nation’s lead­ing experts on meth­ods of exe­cu­tion, has writ­ten a research paper exam­in­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty of cur­rent lethal injec­tion statutes. ​“The Lethal Injection Quandary: How Medicine Has Dismantled the Death Penalty” presents the results of her nation­wide study of lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dures and physi­cian involve­ment, and makes two rec­om­men­da­tions that aim to address con­cerns about the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of cur­rent lethal injec­tion pro­to­cols.

In her paper, Prof. Denno reveals that physi­cian par­tic­i­pa­tion in exe­cu­tions is more preva­lent than many have thought. Despite this involve­ment, how­ev­er, there has been a lack of med­ical and sci­en­tif­ic test­ing of lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dures, result­ing in inad­e­quate pro­to­cols and insuf­fi­cient under­stand­ing of how lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tions are per­formed. The paper also address­es the wide range of legal chal­lenges to lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dures in recent years.

Prof. Denno makes two rec­om­men­da­tions: First, she calls for a nation­wide study of lethal injec­tion pro­to­cols con­duct­ed by an inde­pen­dent com­mis­sion con­sist­ing of a diverse group of qual­i­fied indi­vid­u­als, includ­ing med­ical per­son­nel. This review should con­sid­er the extent of physi­cian par­tic­i­pa­tion in exe­cu­tions. Second, she rec­om­mends that states release infor­ma­tion about exe­cu­tion pro­ce­dures to the pub­lic.
(Denno, Deborah W., ​“The Lethal Injection Quandary: How Medicine Has Dismantled the Death Penalty” (May 1, 2007). Fordham Legal Studies Research Paper No. 983732). Read the Study. See Lethal Injection and Studies.

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