USA - Texas. Yokamon Hearn, 33, black, was executed using, for the first time, a single dose of pentobarbital

Yokamon Hearn, 33, black, was executed using, for the first time, a single dose of pentobarbital. Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials announced last week they were modifying the 3-drug execution procedure used since 1982 because the state's supply of one of the drugs — the muscle relaxant pancuronium bromide — has expired. Ohio, Arizona, Idaho and Washington have already adopted a single-drug procedure, and this week Georgia said it would do so, too. Hearn showed no apparent unusual reaction to the drug as his execution began. He was pronounced dead at 6:37 p.m., about 25 minutes after the lethal dose began flowing.  Hearn was condemned for the March 1998 slaying of Frank Meziere, 23. About 3½ hours before Hearn's punishment, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected appeals to halt it. None of the appeals addressed the change in the state's execution drug policy. Hearn becomes the 6th condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas this year, the 483rd overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982, the 24th this year in the USA and the 1301st overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.