The State of Texas carried out the execution of Tommy Lynn Sells this evening, after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his last appeal. Sells was convicted of killing thirteen-year-old Kaylene Harris in an attack on her and a friend at a home near Del Rio in Val Verde County in 1999. Eleven-year-old Krystal Surles survived and testified against him.
According to the Houston Chronicle:
The execution came despite last-minute litigation by attorneys for Sells and another death row inmate seeking to have the U.S. Supreme Court intervene because Texas prison officials have refused to disclose details about a new batch of lethal drugs.
The high court sent word that it would not stop the execution about an hour before it was scheduled to begin.
It was the fifth execution to take place in Texas this year, out of 14 nationwide.
Previous posts about the latest developments with the lethal injection protocol are available here and here.