Nebraska Law | Examining Lethal Injection
Curt Bright
Author
02/10/2021
Added
221
Plays
Description
Professor Eric Berger examines the reasons why states that employ lethal injection have difficulty doing so.
Searchable Transcript
Toggle between list and paragraph view.
- [00:00:00.232](dramatic music)
- [00:00:04.890]Courts approach lethal injection cases quite differently
- [00:00:08.310]than they approach typical cases.
- [00:00:10.010]In a typical case, a court will defer
- [00:00:13.300]to the political branches
- [00:00:14.880]because of its superior political authority
- [00:00:18.130]and its superior expertise.
- [00:00:20.270]But what we're seeing in lethal injection cases
- [00:00:22.570]is states have neither political authority nor expertise.
- [00:00:27.000]These protocols are designed by unelected officials
- [00:00:31.520]usually acting in secret
- [00:00:33.140]and without oversight from elected officials,
- [00:00:36.060]and they often don't understand the drugs
- [00:00:38.600]or the risks of the procedures they're putting together.
- [00:00:41.320]So what's interesting is that courts are deferring to them
- [00:00:45.470]because they're the government,
- [00:00:47.740]but the reasons for deference
- [00:00:50.440]that typically justify judicial deference aren't appearing
- [00:00:54.210]in these cases.
- [00:00:55.656](dramatic music)
- [00:01:02.590]So my current project is looking
- [00:01:04.050]at the difficulty states are having
- [00:01:05.940]in carrying out executions,
- [00:01:07.350]even though courts are routinely blessing
- [00:01:09.440]what they're doing.
- [00:01:10.430]Many different actors are getting in the way here.
- [00:01:12.550]Drug companies aren't selling their drugs.
- [00:01:14.500]Institutional investors are pressuring drug companies
- [00:01:17.030]so they don't sell their drugs.
- [00:01:18.490]Doctors and nurses don't wanna participate.
- [00:01:20.920]Foreign governments aren't letting drug companies there
- [00:01:24.400]export their drugs to the U.S. for use in executions.
- [00:01:27.280]So what the states are finding is a lot of things completely
- [00:01:30.200]out of their control are making it difficult
- [00:01:32.470]to carry out executions.
- [00:01:34.152](dramatic music)
- [00:01:41.330]I hope my research calls attention
- [00:01:44.770]to the various mistakes states make
- [00:01:47.920]when they put together lethal injection protocols
- [00:01:50.650]to their lack of expertise, to their lack of transparency,
- [00:01:54.640]to the lack of oversight,
- [00:01:56.530]and to the dangers those protocols create,
- [00:01:59.240]which really result in a serious risk
- [00:02:01.950]of excruciating pain for the inmates.
- [00:02:05.430]At Nebraska Law, we have such a talented and supportive
- [00:02:09.900]and engaged faculty,
- [00:02:11.740]and it's just a wonderful community
- [00:02:13.590]to be a scholar and a teacher in.
- [00:02:15.320](dramatic music)
The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!
You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.
Log in to post comments
Embed
Copy the following code into your page
HTML
<div style="padding-top: 56.25%; overflow: hidden; position:relative; -webkit-box-flex: 1; flex-grow: 1;"> <iframe style="bottom: 0; left: 0; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; border: 0; height: 100%; width: 100%;" src="https://mediahub.unl.edu/media/15601?format=iframe&autoplay=0" title="Video Player: Nebraska Law | Examining Lethal Injection " allowfullscreen ></iframe> </div>
Comments
0 Comments