Texas Gets New Drugs, Executes Cop Killer

Texas has a new batch of pentobarbital, and last night it used part of that batch to end the life of Kent Sprouse. The 42-year-old inmate was executed yesterday evening for the 2002 killing of a police officer and another man during a meth-fueled shooting rampage at a Dallas-area gas station, the Huffington Post reports. The state was down to its last dose of the execution drug last month, but it has managed to obtain several more shots from a compounding pharmacy and will be able to carry out three more scheduled executions this month, San Angelo Live reports.

There are at least three more executions scheduled in the state for May and June, reports the AP, and corrections officials say they're looking at other options, including using other drugs or finding fresh sources of pentobarbital. Before he was executed, Sprouse apologized to the victims' families and to his own family "for all the trouble I have caused them," WFAA reports. After the execution, the widow of slain officer Marty Steinfeldt issued a statement saying it was the "emotional end of a long, excruciating journey." She was pregnant when the 28-year-old officer was killed and gave birth to their daughter several months afterward, reports WFAA. (The American Pharmacists Association has urged members not to sell execution drugs.)