Mark Osler, a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, spoke with The New York Times about renewed debate surrounding the death penalty following a botched execution in Tennessee and plans for a publicly livestreamed military execution. Osler discussed how these developments have brought the practice of capital punishment back into public focus.
From the article:
And the two events together have brought the issue of the death penalty – something that has for decades taken place in hidden rooms inside mostly rural prisons – back into the forefront of Americans’ minds.
“What we’re seeing is the brutality of the institution of the death penalty coming back into public focus,” said Mark Osler, a law professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis who has studied the death penalty. “Tennessee didn’t intend to do that; the federal government does.”
“Given that there has been a rise in executions,” he added, “it’s a good time to have that debate.”
