Report: Texas Running Low On Its Execution Drug

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Texas is once again running low on the lethal drug it uses to execute people, and officials are exploring other alternatives before the state’s supply of pentobarbital expires in September, the Austin American-Statesman reported Thursday.

The state was forced to locate another source of the drug twice in three years because manufacturers stopped producing the lethal agent under pressure from death penalty opponents.

Prison officials said last year that if the pentobarbital ran out, they would consider switching to propofol–the anesthetic that was found to be partially responsible for Michael Jackson’s death in 2009.

Texas has executed more people than any other state since the Supreme Court restored capital punishment in 1976, according to the New York Times. The state has executed five times more people than Virginia–the state that ranks second for most executions.

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