"States Transition to One-Drug Executions," is the PBS NewsHour report.
Both Yokamon Hearn and Warren Hill were scheduled to die on Wednesday.
While Texas put to death Hearn as planned, in the state's first execution using a new process for lethal injection -- with one drug instead of a three-drug mix -- Georgia Department of Corrections postponed Hill's execution until Monday at 7 p.m. to also make the switch to the single sedative pentobarbital.
Both states followed the same procedural change as other state criminal justice departments -- including Ohio, Arizona and Idaho -- that have run into problems finding the supply of the three-drug mix. While the change revives the capital punishment issue, it's not one causing much controversy.
Experts Richard Dieter and Kent Scheidegger both explained what the change means in phone interviews with the NewsHour on Thursday.
The Wall Street Journal reports, "Texas Alters Execution Procedure." It's by Steve Eder.
States in recent years have been looking for other drug options in response to a shortage of thiopental sodium, a drug used for almost three decades to render inmates unconscious before other drugs were used. Last year, the sole U.S. maker of thiopental sodium halted production amid a campaign by death-penalty opponents, and makers of other drugs used in executions have come under similar pressure.
The shortages have prompted some states to modify their procedures, with Arizona, Idaho, Ohio, Washington—and now Texas—switching to a single-drug option. On Tuesday, Georgia announced it was delaying an execution as it moves to a single-drug process, and that drug supplies were a factor in the change.
In March, 2011, Texas announced it was switching from using thiopental sodium to the sedative pentobarbital in its three-drug cocktail. Then, last week, Texas again changed its protocol, this time switching from the three-drug sequence to a single-dose of pentobarbital.
The latest change came after the expiration of Texas' stockpile of another drug used in executions, pancuronium bromide, said Jason Clark, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The state wasn't able to obtain replacements for that drug, he said.
Texas has administered six lethal injections this year and has eight more scheduled.
"By switching to a single-drug protocol, we are able to fulfill our statutory responsibility to carry out all executions currently scheduled," Mr. Clark said.
Earlier coverage of Hearn's execution begins at the link. Coverage is also available on Texas' and Georgia's switch to single-drug lethal injection executions is also available.
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