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Texas Switches to Pentobarbital for Lethal Injection Cocktail - UPDATED

By Steve Hall

The updated AP report is, "Shortage Forces Texas To Switch Execution Drug," via NPR. Texas is changing one of the drugs used to conduct executions in the nation's busiest death penalty state because of a shortage of a drug it's used for nearly three decades, officials said Wednesday. Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials said they plan to substitute pentobarbital for sodium thiopental in the three-drug cocktail used for lethal injections. Pentobarbital also is commonly used to euthanize animals and recently has been used for executions in Oklahoma. A shortage of sodium thiopental has forced multiple states to scramble to find substitutes. Texas has used the drug since becoming the first state to do lethal injections in 1982...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on March 16, 2011 (boomark / email).