Defective Methods: Expired Drugs

 After a botched Oklahoma execution utilizing three drugs that had not been tested when blended that left the prisoner dead from a heart attack 43 minutes after administration, the U.S. decided that only one drug was to be used for executions: Pentobarbital (PB).

protocol requires inmates to be injected with 5g of PB

Though effective when used thus far in Texan executions, Texas has been found recently to have used mislabeled and/or expired drugs due to a shortage in pharmacies willing to provide them the narcotic. They have been proven to extend use-by dates after retesting the potency levels. Multiple attorneys have argued that this testing is done incorrectly and is not worth the painful deaths that would violate the U.S. Constitution's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. (See 8th Amendment Violation post).

 Currently, there have been seven reported doses of PB in the TDCJ's stock that were originally set to expire two to three years ago.

Just this past January, a DR inmate named Robert Fratta was executed for the 1994 hit on his estranged wife, Farah Fratta. His death comes after multiple pleas with the courts for a stay of execution because of the allegations against the state for permitting relabeling expired Pentobarbital. 

Robert Fratta, The Houston Chronicle, 1995

After an emergency hearing, Travis County District Judge Catherine Mauzy issued a temporary injunction, claiming that the TDCJ's PB stock is "probably illegal to possess or administer because it is more likely than not expired" (The Texas Tribune). The concern stems from expired PB having the potential to cause "torture, ill treatment, or unnecessary pain."

Mauzy was overruled by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals due to her lack of jurisdiction, and Fratta was pronounced dead 24 minutes after the administration of the drug.