USA - Texas. Texas switches to 1-drug execution.

Texas switches to 1-drug execution. Texas announced today that it would switch to single-drug executions. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice said it will begin using a single dose of pentobarbital to carry out death sentences. It had been using that drug in combination with two others, but its supply of one of the other drugs expired. Texas officials said on May 19 (see) that they have enough doses of pentobarbital to carry out 23 executions. No one has been executed in the state since. In the three-drug cocktail, Texas officials administered 5 grams of the drug — about 3.4 ounces — to render the inmate unconscious, followed by the muscle relaxant pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride to stop the heart. Pancuronium bromide is the drug that expired. Texas next scheduled lethal injection is July 18, when Yokamon Hearn is set to die for a 1998 homicide. Texas has nine executions, including Hearn's, scheduled between now and mid-November.