"Serial killer executed with Texas' new drug supply," is Michael Graczyk's AP report, via the Austin American-Statesman.
A serial killer was put to death Thursday in Texas after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his lawyers' demand that the state release information about where it gets its lethal injection drug.
Tommy Lynn Sells, 49, was the first inmate to be injected with a dose of newly replenished pentobarbital that Texas prison officials obtained to replace an expired supply of the powerful sedative. When asked if he wanted to make a statement before his execution, Sells replied: "No."
As the drug began flowing into his arms inside the death chamber in Huntsville, Sells took a few breaths, his eyes closed and he began to snore. After less than a minute, he stopped moving. He was pronounced dead at 6:27 p.m. CDT - 13 minutes after being given the pentobarbital.
It was Texas' fifth execution of 2014; the 513th post-Furman Texas execution since 1982, and the 274th execution under the administration of Gov. Rick Perry. Texas is responsible for more than 37% of the nation's post-Furman executions.
There have been 15 executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,374 post-Furman executions since 1977.
According to TDCJ, Texas state district courts have set four additional execution dates.
Earlier coverage of the Texas lethal injection challenge begins at the link.
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