Confronted on Execution, Texas Proudly Says It Kills Efficiently
"When you do something a lot, you get good at it. I think Texas probably does it as well as Iran."
DAVID R. DOW, who has represented more than 100 death row inmates, on the state prison in Huntsville, where 876 people have been executed since 1924.
HUNTSVILLE, Tex. If Texas executes Robert James Campbell as planned on Tuesday, for raping and murdering a woman, it will be the nations first execution since Oklahomas bungled attempt at lethal injection two weeks ago left a convicted murderer writhing and moaning before he died.
Lawyers for Mr. Campbell are trying to use the Oklahoma debacle to stop the execution here. But many in this state and in this East Texas town north of Houston, where hundreds have been executed in the nations busiest death chamber, like to say they do things right.
For two years now, Texas has used a single drug, the barbiturate pentobarbital, instead of the three-drug regimen used in neighboring Oklahoma. Prison administrators from other states often travel here to learn how Texas performs lethal injections and to observe executions. Texas officials have provided guidance and, on at least a few occasions, carried out executions for other states.
Even the protesters and television cameras that used to accompany executions here have, in most cases, dissipated. Its kind of business as usual, said Tommy Oates, 62, a longtime resident who was eating lunch last week at McKenzies Barbeque, about one mile from the prison known as the Walls Unit. That sounds cold, I know. But theyre not in prison for singing too loud at church.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/13/us/facing-challenge-to-execution-texas-calls-its-process-the-gold-standard.html?emc=edit_th_20140513&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=45299538&_r=0