The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a stay in the execution of Randall Wayne Mays. Mays was convicted in the 2007 murders of Investigator Paul Steven Habelt and Deputy Sheriff Tony Price Ogburn, from the Henderson County Sheriff's office.
When Texas next carries out its death penalty it will have to find a new way of execution. Utah has passed a bill to bring back the firing squad. Tennessee and Alabama have reinstated the electric chair if they run out of drugs. Oklahoma's legislature is considering a novel approach of death by nitrogen asphyxiation. Many states are considering alternative methods.
As supplies of pentobarbital become scarcer and scarcer and other drug combinations seem less appealing with botched executions in Oklahoma making national headlines, Texas--with the most active death house in the country--isn't saying much on where it might turn.
"We're exploring all options including the continued use of pentobarbital or an alternate drug(s) in the lethal injection process. I cannot speculate on the future availability of drugs at this time." - Jason Clark, Director of Public Information, Texas Department of Criminal Justice
Guests:
- Deborah Denno, Professor of Law at Fordham University
- David Dow, Professor at the University of Houston Law Center where he runs a death penalty clinic where students can assist in representing death-row inmates
