The last Texas execution was on April 16, of this year.
"Texas’ Death Drug: Not Regulated by FDA, but Still Safe?" is by Alex Hannaford at Voactiv.
Barring a last-minute reprieve, on Wednesday, Sept. 10, Willie Trottie will become the next person executed in the United States. According to the plan laid out by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, a single dose of the powerful sedative pentobarbital will be injected into a vein in Trottie’s arm, and he’ll die around six minutes later.
That’s if all goes to plan.
In a motion filed last week, Trottie’s attorneys claim there’s a risk their client will suffer excruciating pain on the gurney, in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. At issue are concerns about the safety and source of the state’s supply of pentobarbital, which Texas has used as its sole lethal injection drug since 2012. Perhaps incredibly, considering that it executes more people than any other state, Texas has largely escaped the scrutiny that has accompanied this year’s botched executions.
Texas has carried out seven executions in 2014; a total of 515 post-Furman Texas execution since 1982. Texas is responsible for more than 37% of the nation's post-Furman executions.
There have been 27 executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,386 post-Furman executions since 1977.
According to TDCJ, Texas state district courts have set three additional execution dates for this year. Six execution dates have already been scheduled for 2016.
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