Hours before Texas planned to execute Robert Fratta on Tuesday evening for the death of his estranged wife, a Travis County judge barred prison officials from conducting executions with drugs long past their original expiration date.
, claiming the testing is done incorrectly, and that old drugs have caused painful deaths that violate the Constitution’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.
The seven doses of pentobarbital TDCJ most recently reported to have in stock were originally set to expire either nearly two or more than three years ago, according to prisoner attorneys. TDCJ has since relabeled the drugs’ expiration date for September and November.Following the lead of two other death row prisoners set to die next month, Fratta, who was convicted in Harris County, asked Travis County courts last month to ban TDCJ from using the old drugs in his Tuesday execution.
"It is alarming that Texas intends to carry out executions with compounded pentobarbital that expired years ago," Shawn Nolan, an attorney for two men set for execution in February, said in a statement Monday. "We must have a hearing to ensure that Texas does not violate the law and place prisoners at serious risk of pain and suffering in the execution process."
A TDCJ spokesperson did not respond to questions over the jurisdictional concerns or execution drugs Monday or Tuesday, only saying after Mauzy’s ruling that the agency would appeal. In legal arguments, Texas has argued restrictions on pharmaceutical drugs don’t apply to executions because they’re not being used to treat someone.
Fratta has maintained his innocence over nearly 30 years, arguing almost all of the evidence against him relied on a single witness who testified in exchange for immunity from prosecution. He has pending appeals in the U.S. Supreme Court to further review his conviction. If courts rule against Fratta in appeals over his conviction and the lethal drugs Tuesday, he will be executed in a Huntsville prison.
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