Last night, May 3, 2011, the State of Texas carried out the execution of Cary Kerr under a new lethal injection protocol that uses pentobarbital rather than sodium thiopental as the first drug in the process. This was the third execution in Texas this year (out of 13 nationwide) but the the first using a different cocktail of drugs. Ohio and Oklahoma have carried out executions using pentobarbital, as well.
Kerr was sentenced to death in 2003 for the rape and murder of Pamela Horton in a Fort Worth suburb. He proclaimed his innocence in his last words.
Read more from the Austin American-Statesman, the Texas Tribune, and the Huntsville Item.