Texas executes 8th inmate in 2014

Trottie’s attorneys had filed a petition with the US Supreme Court asking for a stay of execution, saying that “factual discrepancies in the evidence against Trottie remain unresolved.”

His attorneys also argued the dose of pentobarbital for his lethal injection was past its effectiveness date and may cause him an unconstitutional “tortuous” pain.

Trottie became the eighth person put to death in Texas this year and the 29th person in the US. Most of the executions have occurred in the three states of Missouri, Texas and Florida.

The state of Texas has been responsible for nearly 40 percent of all executions in the US since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

Early Wednesday morning, officials in Missouri executed Earl Ringo, convicted in a robbery and murder in 1998. Ringo’s attorney had tried to postpone the execution over concerns about the effects of a controversial lethal drug.

Kay Parish, Ringo’s attorney, had argued that based on a new investigation conducted by a St. Louis Public Radio, state authorities had lied about the drugs and methods they used in carrying out executions for the death row inmates.

AHT/DT