Inmates Allege Texas Is Considering Using Dangerous Execution Drugs

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HOUSTON (AP) Texas plans to use outdated and dangerous drugs to carry out executions early this year in violation of state law, three death row inmates claim in a lawsuit.

Prison officials deny this claim and say the state’s supply of execution drugs is safe.

The first performance, by Robert Fratta, is scheduled for January 10. The state’s highest criminal appeals court on Friday stayed the trial of Fratta, Wesley Ruiz and John Balentine while it considers an appeal from the Texas attorney general’s office. The state wants the case to be tried in a criminal court, not a civil one.

The stretcher in Huntsville, Texas, where inmates are strapped to receive a lethal dose of drugs, is shown May 27, 2008. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan, File)

Shawn Nolan, an attorney for Balentine and Ruiz, who are both due for execution in February, criticized Texas’ secrecy on issues related to its execution proceedings.

State lawmakers banned the disclosure of drug suppliers for executions beginning in 2015. The Texas Supreme Court upheld the law in 2019.

Texas continues to rely on secrecy in these executions and that’s why they’re trying to circumvent this lawsuit because they don’t want to tell anyone these drugs are expired, Nolan said.

Lawyers for the inmates have requested a hearing to determine whether the prisoners are at serious risk of pain and suffering in the execution process, Nolan said.

There has been a history of problems with lethal injections since Texas became the first state to use this method of execution in 1982. Some problems have included difficulty finding usable veins, disengaging needles, or problems with medications.

Like other states in recent years, Texas has turned to prep pharmacies for pentobarbital, which it uses for executions, after traditional drug makers refused to sell their products to prison agencies in the US. United States.

All lethal injection drugs are within their use dates and have been appropriately tested, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, or TDCJ, spokeswoman Amanda Hernandez said in an email on Tuesday.

Rows of jail cells, prison interior.

But in a 15-page statement submitted in support of the death row inmate trial, Michaela Almgren, a professor of pharmacology at the University of South Carolina, said she concluded after reviewing state records. that all pentobarbital in the possession of the TDCJ had expired, as is well past the specified expiration date.

A drug that is past its use-by date (beyond its use-by date) may lack stability and sterility and may not retain sufficient potency, so it should not be used, Almgren wrote.

She found that some vials of pentobarbital were over 630 days old while others were over 1,300 days old, well past their 24-hour expiration date when stored at room temperature. If these compound drugs are frozen, their expiry date is 45 days.

Department records obtained by attorneys for the inmates showed prison officials conducted potency tests of their pentobarbital supply that extended its expiration date through September and November.

But Almgren called the test states completely unscientific and incorrect, and therefore the results are invalid.

Nolan said using expired drugs would violate several state laws, including the Texas Pharmacy Act and the Texas Controlled Substances Act.

Fratta joined the lawsuit after filing. Lawyers for the three detainees say they are not trying to prevent the state from carrying out lawful executions.

If the state wants to go ahead with these executions, it can do so. They just need to get unexpired medicine, Nolan said.

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