Texas Death Penalty Facing Drug Shortage: Has Texas Overdosed On its Own Supply?
Has Texas overdosed on the death penalty drug? Texas is reportedly running out of the drug used to execute prisoners. This should come as no surprise for Texas which has become the most active death penalty state in the country.
The cost of executions is soaring, especially in the state that conducts the most. The necessary drugs have become increasingly hard to get. A year ago it cost the Texas Department of Criminal Justice $83.55 for the drugs used to carry out an execution — sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride.
Jason Clark, spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice released a statement on Thursday confirming that the state’s remaining supply of pentobarbital “will expire” in September. “The agency is exploring all options including alternate sources of pentobarbital or an alternate drug for use in the lethal injection process,” Clark said in the statement.
So far this year, Texas has executed 11 inmates, most recently Wednesday, when Douglas Feldman, 55, was executed for the fatal road rage shooting of two men in Dallas County in 1998. Texas officials have scheduled two executions in September and at least five more before the end of the year. It was unclear whether they have enough of the drug now to carry out those executions — Clark declined to comment.
Last March the state was forced to replace sodium thiopental …click HERE to continue reading
