Texan authorities hail execution drug that critics say causes agony

Authorities in Texas have defended the state's first execution of a death row inmate using a single lethal injection of the sedative pentobarbital, instead of the cocktail of three drugs used in the past, saying it went "without incident".

Texas and three other US states – Ohio, Arizona, Washington and Idaho – have been forced into changing the drug mix in the execution chamber after one of the three, thiopental sodium, was taken off the market in 2010. The European Union had placed a ban on the export of the drug to the US, precisely because the primary customers were states exercising capital punishment. Hearn was the first inmate to be killed in Texas using the method.

Authorities did not address concerns held by opponents of the death penalty that the single drug method could increase the pain suffered. A spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice added: "The one-drug protocol has been adopted by several states, and has been upheld as constitutional."

He said the execution had been "carried out without incident" in spite of fears that the administration of pentobarbital might present risks.

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Source: The Independent, July 20, 2012

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