Texas plans to execute Wesley Ruiz Wednesday evening despite the ongoing controversy surrounding the state’s use of drugs past their original expiration dates.
, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.surrounding the state’s use of drugs long past their original expiration dates to kill prisoners.
With fewer pharmacies willing to produce execution drugs, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for years has extended the use-by dates of its existing pentobarbital, the only drug used in Texas executions, after retesting potency levels. Previous legal battles seeking to halt the practice have failed in court.
“TDCJ knew it had other chemicals for use in the execution — and actually used those chemicals — but TDCJ withheld that information from Mr. Fratta and the courts, leading everyone, including the public, to believe that they only had chemicals that were found to cause pain,” said Tivon Schardl, a federal defense attorney representing Fratta, in a statement last week.
“Basically, we want to be able to continue to preserve the ability to use any of the drugs in our inventory because we believe they are still viable to be used in executions,” Hernandez told the Tribune last week. In her short-lived order, Mauzy required TDCJ to use pentobarbital within the time frames set forth by the storage requirements of the Texas Pharmacy Act. Such conditions set expiration dates for compounded pentobarbital at 45 days, if kept frozen, but only 72 hours if kept refrigerated, or 24 hours if stored at room temperature, according to court briefings.
Aside from the dormant fight over old drugs in Travis County, Ruiz asked his trial court in Dallas County to halt his execution because of concerns over the lethal drugs. The court denied his appeal Tuesday, and an appeal with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals was pending Tuesday afternoon.
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