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Texas is running out of its execution drugs.
Texas has already executed six people this year (three from Bexar County), but they're running out of their killing drugs.
While the Texas Department of Criminal Justice faces a shortage of the drug used for lethal injection, pentobarbital, it's determined to continue with scheduled executions.
In a report by NPR, the American Pharmacist Association (APhA), which holds strong influence within the pharmaceutical world, established a new policy discouraging its members from selling the drugs for execution as it contradicts their principle role as healthcare providers.
Pharmaceutical manufacturers adhering to APhA's policy of no longer providing the lethal drugs to prisons, NBC News says states like Texas “turn to less-regulated compounding pharmacies."
TDCJ used newly acquired drugs in its last execution when cop killer Manuel Garza Jr. was put to death on April 15, the Associated Press reported.
But the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty sees the shortage as a sign and supports current legislation by Houston Rep. Jessica Farrar abolishing the death penalty in favor of life sentence without possibility of parole.
Oklahoma, Utah and Tennessee have debated alternate methods of capital punishment, including using firing squads, electric chairs and nitrogen gas.
Four executions scheduled are in the coming months and roughly 260 inmates are on death row.
But continued executions are most certainly part of the TDCJ's game plan.
TDCJ Executive Director Brad Livingston told the Associated Press “We’re not ruling anything out, but clearly securing additional pentobarbital is part of our game plan.”
