The Guardian posts, "Texas execution on course despite claims that drug supply expired," is by Tom Dart.
Amid claims that its drug supply has expired, Texas is set to execute its first prisoner since the state’s attorney general decided that it does not have to reveal the source of its lethal injection drugs.
Citing security concerns for pharmacies, Greg Abbott – the Republican candidate for governor in this November’s election – reversed course in May after previously compelling the Texas department of criminal justice to disclose details about its drug suppliers.
But lawyers for Willie Trottie, who is scheduled to be put to death on Wednesday at 6pm CT unless last-minute legal appeals succeed, have raised questions about whether Texas’s supply is still current and claim that recent botched executions have added to doubts about the efficacy and legality of the lethal injection process in general.
"Appeals court rejects inmate's lawsuit over expired execution drugs," is from Houston television station KTRK-TV.
The lawsuit, rejected by a federal judge in Houston and before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday, was merely another attempt to force Texas prison officials to reveal its drug provider, they said. State lawyers argued the pentobarbital planned for Trottie was effective through the end of this month.
Texas, like several other states with capital punishment, has addressed the refusal by mainstream drug companies to sell drugs for executions by turning to compounding pharmacies, which operate under less stringent supervision. Also like some other death penalty states, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has refused to identify its supplier, a practice the courts so far have upheld.
Maurie Levin, the lead attorney for the drug lawsuit, said the pentobarbital for Trottie would come from a supply Texas obtained earlier this year and that scientific literature on compounded drugs suggests they lose effectiveness after a week or a month depending on factors like storage and sterility.
"All they're saying is: Take our word for it - Sept. 30," Levin said, calling Texas prison officials "untrustworthy."
Additional coverage includes:
"Willie Tyrone Trottie Faces Execution," by Terri Langford and Bobby Blanchard for the tExas Tribune.
"A look at the execution scheduled in Texas," by Michael Graczyk of AP, via the San Antonio Express-News.
Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and its HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CDT), this evening.
Earlier coverage from Texas begins at the link.
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