Lawyers: Texas to use expired execution drug on black inmate

Greetings,

Lawyers: Texas to use expired execution drug

Willie Trottie is scheduled to be executed Wednesday, Sept. 10 for killing his common-law wife Barbara Canada and her brother Titus Canada.

Lawyers for a Texas death row prisoner argued in a federal lawsuit on Tuesday that the drug intended for his lethal injection is expired.

The attorneys for Houston double-killer Willie Trottie asked the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to delay their client’s Wednesday execution, saying its use could cause him “torturous” pain.

Trottie, aged 44, has put on death row for killing his estranged lover, Barbara Canada, 24, and her brother, Titus Canada, 29, in May 1993.

During an appeal, which took 11 hours, the lawyers put into question authorities’ argument that the compounding pharmacy-produced pentobarbital should remain potent through Sept. 30.

The lawyers asserted that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s “purchases (actual and attempted) of lethal injection drugs have been riddled with deceptive and questionable practices and communications.”

Texas officials now purchase drugs from unidentified compounding pharmacies to conduct their executions.

The death penalty in the US has come under scrutiny after recent executions went awry in Oklahoma and Arizona.

In Arizona, an inmate gasped more than 600 times and took nearly two hours to die.

In April, an Oklahoma inmate died of an apparent heart attack 43 minutes after his botched execution began.

An Ohio inmate in January snorted and gasped for 26 minutes before dying.

States have found it harder to obtain lethal injection drugs after European drug companies blocked sales to the US, objecting to the use of their products in executions. US state officials are resorting to alternative methods and drugs, which are not tested before.

Click here for reuse options!
Copyright 2014 Hiram's 1555 Blog