Texas executes its 1st inmate using single drug

Source: Associated Press

Texas executes its 1st inmate using single drug
Associated Press | Posted: Wednesday, July 18, 2012 7:01 pm

A 33-year-old Texas man convicted of carjacking and fatally shooting a suburban Dallas stockbroker was put to death Wednesday, becoming the first prisoner in the nation's most active capital punishment state to be executed with a single lethal drug.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials announced last week they were modifying the three-drug execution procedure used since 1982 because the state's supply of one of the drugs _ the muscle relaxant pancuronium bromide _ has expired. Yokamon Hearn was executed Wednesday evening using a single dose of the sedative pentobarbital, which had been part of the three-drug mixture since last year.

Ohio, Arizona, Idaho and Washington have already adopted a single-drug procedure, and this week Georgia said it would do so, too.

Hearn showed no apparent unusual reaction to the drug as his execution began. He was pronounced dead at 6:37 p.m. CDT, about 25 minutes after the lethal dose began flowing.


Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/national/texas-executes-its-st-inmate-using-single-drug/article_8a4e735c-9002-59e9-aa5f-6f5fc9b5548e.html#ixzz211n9ijwP