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Texas Death House, 'The Walls' Unit, Huntsville, Texas |
With the first execution of the new year scheduled next week, Texas prison officials said Wednesday that the state has a large enough supply of drugs to carry out the executions already scheduled for 2016.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has been forced to find nontraditional suppliers of execution drugs in recent years because the usual vendors refused to make their drugs available following scrutiny from death penalty opponents.
The state was struggling to replenish its supply of the powerful sedative pentobarbital over the summer, but was able to obtain enough doses to execute six inmates between June and November.
There are nine lethal injections scheduled this year.
"The agency's supply of pentobarbital was purchased from a licensed pharmacy that has the ability to compound," TDCJ spokesman Jason Clark said Wednesday.
There is one more execution scheduled this month, one in February, three in March, two in April and one in June.
One of the inmates scheduled to die this year is Robert Pruett, who was given a new execution date this week. His lethal injection has been set for April 27.
Source: The Item, Cody Stark, January 14, 2016