Texas leads the nation’s 33 death penalty states in executions, killing more than the next five most active states combined. Look back at recent executions and notorious cases from the Houston area.
U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes turned aside Michael Yowell's claims, noting that, while "people of goodwill can debate death as a penalty ... the death penalty is consitutional."
Yowell, 43, is scheduled to be put to death Wednesday for the May 1998 murder of his mother, father and grandmother. He had sought an emergency stay to allow examination of whether the use of pentobarbital purchased from Woodlands Compounding Pharmacy would be cruel and unusual.
The Associated Press reported the state purchased the drug from the area pharmacy after exhausting its supply with September executions. Prison spokesman Jason Clark Monday confirmed his agency had purchased eight 2.5-gram vials of the drug, which frequently is used to euthanize cats and dogs.
Each execution requires 5 grams of the drug, Clark said.
Clark did not immediately respond to a question concerning whether the state would return the lethal drug as requested by pharmacy owner Jasper Lovoi, who could not be reached for comment.
In a letter to state officials dated Oct. 4, the pharmacy objected that its name had been made public and asked that the pentobarbital be returned.
Yowell was joined by condemned killers Thomas Whitaker and Perry Williams in seeking a halt of executions using the newly acquired drug. Yowell was sentenced to die for strangling his mother and fatally shooting his father before setting the family home on fire. His grandmother later died of injuries suffered in the blaze.
Whitaker, 33, was sentenced to die for a 2003 Fort Bend County double murder; Williams, 32, for a 2000 abduction and murder.
In another setback for Yowell, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected his 11th-hour appeal without comment.
http://www.chron.com/news/politics/texas/article/Judge-rejects-killer-s-bid-to-halt-execution-over-4875809.php
Yowell, 43, is scheduled to be put to death Wednesday for the May 1998 murder of his mother, father and grandmother. He had sought an emergency stay to allow examination of whether the use of pentobarbital purchased from Woodlands Compounding Pharmacy would be cruel and unusual.
The Associated Press reported the state purchased the drug from the area pharmacy after exhausting its supply with September executions. Prison spokesman Jason Clark Monday confirmed his agency had purchased eight 2.5-gram vials of the drug, which frequently is used to euthanize cats and dogs.
Each execution requires 5 grams of the drug, Clark said.
Clark did not immediately respond to a question concerning whether the state would return the lethal drug as requested by pharmacy owner Jasper Lovoi, who could not be reached for comment.
In a letter to state officials dated Oct. 4, the pharmacy objected that its name had been made public and asked that the pentobarbital be returned.
Yowell was joined by condemned killers Thomas Whitaker and Perry Williams in seeking a halt of executions using the newly acquired drug. Yowell was sentenced to die for strangling his mother and fatally shooting his father before setting the family home on fire. His grandmother later died of injuries suffered in the blaze.
Whitaker, 33, was sentenced to die for a 2003 Fort Bend County double murder; Williams, 32, for a 2000 abduction and murder.
In another setback for Yowell, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected his 11th-hour appeal without comment.
http://www.chron.com/news/politics/texas/article/Judge-rejects-killer-s-bid-to-halt-execution-over-4875809.php
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