East Texas Man Executed For Killing Neighbors 13 Years Ago

HUNTSVILLE, TX -- After six months since its last death penalty took place, Texas on Wednesday night executed an East Texas man charged with the killing of two neighbors 13 years ago.

It took Barney Fuller, Jr. nearly 40 minutes to die after a lethal dose of pentobarbital was injected each arm, according to media reports. Still, as the drug was being injected into his system, he blurted out "Hey, you fixin' to put me to sleep," the Houston Chronicle reported.

Asked to explain the longer-than-normal time it took the prisoner to die -- 38 minutes instead of the usual five to ten minues -- Texas Department of Criminal Justice Jason Clark told the Chronicle: "Each person is unique in how his body shuts down."

Yet Texas, like other states that execute prisoners, has faced increased resistance from pharmaceutical companies refusing to having any association with the death penalty for reasons centered on public relations. As a result, Texas has turned to compounding pharmacies to obtain their lethal drugs.

For a while, a Houston compounding pharmacy was providing the doses, on the condition they not be publicly identified as the source, as the Texas Tribune reported. But when the pharmacy's name emerged as part of a court proceeding, company officials were furious and quit the arrangement while demanding its drugs back, as was widely reported at the time. Texas refused, as the Texas Tribune reported.

There's no way to know if the unavailability of drugs from a pharmaceutical company rather than a compounding pharmacy had any role in the extended period of time it took Fuller to die on Wednesday night. Several other states having to turn to alternative suppliers have had botched executions as a result -- including the one in Arizona where it took two hours for Joseph Wood to die as he struggled to breathe.

In Texas, there's a shroud of mystery as to who even supplies its drugs. Texas officials insist the source should be a "state secret" to protect the compounding pharmacy from harassment, as NPR reported. A Texas judge rejected the state's arguments, ruling that the name of the compounding pharmacy should be public information. Texas is appealing that decision.

Fuller, 58, was put to death for the killings of his two neighbors, a husband and wife, 13 years ago. The slain couple's children were among the witnesses to his execution, as reported by the Texas Tribune.

The Chronicle reported that Fuller took a couple of deep breaths as the drugs took effet and then began to snore. Within 30 seconds, he was motionless. By 7:01 p.m. CDT, Fuller was dead -- the seventh convicted killer to be executed in Texas this year.

While the prolific pace of executions has slowed this year in Texas, the state holds firm as the most active in terms of implementing its death penalties, after Oklahoma. Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, the state has killed nearly five times as many people as the state with the second-most executions, Oklahoma, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

>>> Photo of Fuller via Texas Department of Criminal Justice