AUSTIN, Texas, June 21 (UPI) -- Texas prison officials revealed their stockpile of lethal injection drugs used in executions was obtained legally, domestically and before supplies dried up.
In releasing records about its suppliers, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice confirmed it had enough lethal drugs to carry out 23 executions at a time when other states used an overseas network of suppliers that drew the attention of federal agents, who seized illegally imported drugs, the Austin American-Statesman reported Thursday.
The sedative Nembutal, a trade name for pentobarbital, is one of three drugs combined during a lethal injection execution, and proved the most difficult to obtain. By the summer of 2011, domestic supplies had dwindled, and other states attempted to purchase it in Pakistan and England, the newspaper said.
Invoices, made public by the agency Wednesday, showed that $51,000 of Nembutal was purchased in March and April 2011 from a pharmaceutical distributor in Houston, and was shipped from offices in West Columbia, S.C.
The newspaper said the information was obtained under the Texas Public Information Act.
