A Texas inmate was executed yesterday for the killings of his 15-year-old girlfriend, her mother, and her grandfather nearly 13 years ago in Houston, the Associated Press reports. Derrick Dewayne Charles, 32, became the seventh prisoner put to death this year in the most active capital punishment state. The lethal injection was carried out after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected arguments from Charles’ attorneys that he was mentally incompetent for execution and that they needed time and court-approved money for experts and investigators to pursue that claim.
At least two more Texas inmates are scheduled for lethal injection over the next several weeks. Charles’ execution leaves the Texas Department of Criminal Justice with enough pentobarbital to carry out the first one, set for June 3. To accommodate one scheduled for June 15, the prison agency will need to replenish its supply, a task that has become increasingly difficult as drugmakers have refused to sell their products to state corrections departments for execution use.