Texas executes serial killer

[Jazzy]

A serial killer was put to death Thursday in Texas after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his lawyers' demand that the state release information about where it gets its lethal injection drug.

Tommy Lynn Sells, 49, was the first inmate to be injected with a dose of newly replenished pentobarbital that Texas prison officials obtained to replace an expired supply of the powerful sedative. When asked if he wanted to make a statement before his execution, Sells replied: "No."

As the drug began flowing into his arms inside the death chamber in Huntsville, Sells took a few breaths, his eyes closed and he began to snore. After less than a minute, he stopped moving. He was pronounced dead at 6:27 p.m. CDT - 13 minutes after being given the pentobarbital.

The Supreme Court earlier in the day declined to halt the execution as Sells' attorneys sought more information from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice about the supplier of the new drug stock. State prison officials argued that the pharmacy must be kept secret to protect it from threats of violence.

Lawyers for Sells contended they needed to know the name of the pharmacy in order to verify the drug's quality and protect Sells from unconstitutional pain and suffering.

In 2003, Sells was indicted but never tried for the slaying of 13-year-old Stephanie Mahaney in Missouri. He also pleaded guilty to capital murder in the 1999 death of 9-year-old Mary Bea Perez, who was strangled during an outdoor festival in Texas. Prosecutors waived the death penalty in exchange for the plea.

Among his other confessions was the slaying of an Illinois family in 1987. Those victims included Ruby Dardeen, who was eight months pregnant. Her fatal beating forced her to prematurely give birth. The newborn was killed along with her 3-year-old sibling.

Court records show Sells claimed to have committed as many as 70 killings across the U.S.

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How do you feel about the Lawyers for Sells trying to protect him from unconstitutional pain and suffering after reading the crimes this man committed?

 

[Sinon]

As much as I'm against people like him being treated "fairly" considering the things he did, the lawyers are doing their job. They're paid to do what they were doing, and if they didn't try, they wouldn't get money. So I have no real opinion other than they did what they had to do.

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

I want Florida to bring back the electric chair so I dont really care if the suffer a long horrible death.

 

[Jazzy]

Perhaps we should bring back the firing squad or death by hanging. Would they then be so concerned over where a lethal injection drug came from?

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

Hanging is the cheapest route sounds good to me.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

A single bullet in the head is quick and painless.