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On Wednesday night, Texas plans to execute Wesley Ruiz regardless of the continued controversy surrounding the state’s use of medicine long gone their authentic expiration dates to kill prisoners.
Ruiz, 43, was sentenced to dying practically 15 years in the past for the 2007 taking pictures of Dallas police Senior Cpl. Mark Nix following a high-speed automotive chase. The chase started whereas police had been looking for a homicide suspect, in keeping with court docket paperwork. Ruiz’s automotive ultimately slid off the aspect of the street, and Nix rushed over and started smashing the passenger aspect window along with his police baton. Ruiz fatally shot him within the chest via the again passenger window, court docket filings state.
In an energetic authorized battle, Ruiz and different condemned prisoners have argued the state jail system shouldn’t be allowed to proceed extending the expiration dates of its execution medication. They declare the usage of outdated medication violates the U.S. Structure’s prohibition of merciless and weird punishment.
With fewer pharmacies prepared to supply execution medication, the Texas Division of Legal Justice for years has prolonged the use-by dates of its present pentobarbital, the one drug utilized in Texas executions, after retesting efficiency ranges. Earlier authorized battles in search of to halt the apply have failed in court docket.
Within the present litigation, Texas’ excessive courts refused to halt a January execution, overriding a decrease state court docket’s non permanent order that prisons use solely new execution medication till the lawsuit goes to trial in March. The Texas Court docket of Legal Appeals dominated the decrease court docket couldn’t situation any order that might seemingly cancel an execution.
The prisoners’ attorneys and the district court docket choose assumed, primarily based on probably the most lately publicly launched data from November and TDCJ’s silence, that the one execution medication the jail had in inventory had been years previous their authentic expiration dates.
Minutes after the courts’ ultimate rulings on Jan. 10, Robert Fratta was executed.
Nowhere in repeated court docket filings or an hourslong listening to did TDCJ attorneys inform courts that the company lately obtained new medication, as was discovered by The Texas Tribune final week. Pentobarbital provide logs obtained via a public info request revealed the jail obtained eight new doses on Jan. 5, 5 days earlier than Fratta’s execution. A brand new vial of medicine was used to execute Fratta.
“TDCJ knew it had different chemical substances to be used within the execution — and really used these chemical substances — however TDCJ withheld that info from Mr. Fratta and the courts, main everybody, together with the general public, to imagine that they solely had chemical substances that had been discovered to trigger ache,” stated Tivon Schardl, a federal protection lawyer representing Fratta, in an announcement final week.
TDCJ spokesperson Amanda Hernandez stated the company continued preventing the lawsuit after new medication arrived partly as a result of officers didn’t know if the brand new doses can be utilized in upcoming executions.
Hernandez didn’t clarify why the company and the Texas lawyer common’s workplace did not disclose the brand new medication in court docket or right the acknowledged perception that TDCJ had solely outdated vials.
“Principally, we would like to have the ability to proceed to protect the flexibility to make use of any of the medication in our stock as a result of we imagine they’re nonetheless viable for use in executions,” Hernandez instructed the Tribune final week.
Texas has rejected claims that its strategy of retesting and increasing the expiration dates is thought to be torturous, as executions carried out utilizing such medication sometimes proceed with none indication of ache. The state argued state rules for pharmaceutical drug use shouldn’t apply to executions.
In any case, the cargo of recent medication probably couldn’t have been used to execute Fratta, or be out there for Ruiz’s execution Wednesday, if the appeals court docket hadn’t tossed out the non permanent injunction issued by state District Decide Catherine Mauzy.
In her short-lived order, Mauzy required TDCJ to make use of pentobarbital inside the time frames set forth by the storage necessities of the Texas Pharmacy Act. Such situations set expiration dates for compounded pentobarbital at 45 days, if stored frozen, however solely 72 hours if stored refrigerated, or 24 hours if saved at room temperature, in keeping with court docket briefings.
Previous laboratory stories of TDCJ’s pentobarbital testing listing the substance’s storage situations as “room temperature.” Hernandez didn’t specify how its inventory of pentobarbital is presently saved, however she stated she understood that the brand new medication nonetheless wouldn’t have complied with Mauzy’s order.
“You’re making an assumption that the brand new medication meet the necessities of the Texas Pharmacy Act,” she stated. “That’s simply an assumption.”
Except for the dormant struggle over outdated medication in Travis County, Ruiz requested his trial court docket in Dallas County to halt his execution due to considerations over the deadly medication. The court docket denied his attraction Tuesday, and an attraction with the Texas Court docket of Legal Appeals was pending Tuesday afternoon.
Ruiz additionally nonetheless had a pending attraction within the U.S. Supreme Court docket, wherein he argued that jurors relied on “overtly racist” and “blatant anti-Hispanic stereotypes” whereas weighing whether or not or not he needs to be sentenced to dying.
His attorneys cited lately obtained affidavits from Ruiz’s jurors that use racist language to explain Ruiz and Hispanic males, together with the foreman calling him a “thug and punk” and saying he was fearful of Hispanic folks within the courtroom as a result of he believed they had been gang members. He additionally described feeling threatened whereas driving as soon as as a result of somebody he believed to be Mexican was behind him in a “flashy automotive.” The foreman stated he satisfied one other juror to go for the dying penalty regardless of her hesitancy, in keeping with the submitting.
Texas courts have to this point rejected the attraction primarily based on its late timing.
Amid his first visit to Taiwan, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced on Sunday the opening of a Texas-Taiwan trade representative office in Taipei to strengthen business and economic ties between the state and island.
Taiwan-based companies have been expanding into Texas for years, specifically in the semiconductor and petrochemical industries. Totaling $21.3 billion in 2023, Taiwan is Texas’ seventh-largest trade partner, according to Abbott.
One of the notable expansions is by GlobalWafers, a Taiwan-based semiconductor silicon wafer company, which announced in 2022 plans to build a state-of-the-art silicon wafer factory in Sherman, Texas. This facility, expected to be the first of its kind in the United States in over two decades, aims to address the semiconductor supply chain issues in the U.S. by reducing the reliance on imported silicon wafers from Asia. This project is anticipated to create around 1,500 jobs and significantly bolster the state’s local economy.
During a visit to Taiwan on Sunday, Abbott announced the opening of the State of Texas Taiwan Office (STTO), making it the 23rd U.S. state to open an office in Taipei. The STTO, which will operate under Texas’ Economic Development & Tourism Office, was announced in an effort to strengthen business and economic ties between the state and island, with the Republican governor also signing a letter of intent.
Newsweek has reached out to Abbott’s office via email for comment.
“We understand, both in Texas and in the United States, the importance of a strong Taiwan for the future of the entire globe. One of the best things that we can do to strengthen Taiwan and strengthen its future is by expanding our economic ties, so that Taiwan grows even stronger economically,” Abbott said on a stage with Taiwan Minister of Economic Affairs Jyh-Huei Kuo.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Abbott praised the opening of the office and wrote on Sunday morning, “Taiwan President Lai welcomed our Texas delegation in Taipei. We also announced the opening of a trade representative office for the State of Texas. We do BILLIONS in trade with Taiwan. The country was very hospitable.”
According to Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, Texas is an important trading partner as the Lone Star state is the ninth largest export market, with exports exceeding $11.5 billion in 2023.
“During this trip you will open the state of Texas-Taiwan office and sign an economic development statement of intent. I assure that the office will create new and trailblazing opportunities for an even stronger collaboration between Taiwanese and US businesses,” Lai said, according to Taiwan News.
However, the announcement comes as tensions between Taiwan and China continue to grow.
In May, Lai faced China’s largest-scale military exercises in nearly two years. It comes as a response to Lai’s inauguration speech as he asserted that “the Republic of China Taiwan is a sovereign, independent nation,” adding it is “an important link in the global chain of democracies.” While Taiwan has been independently governed since 1949, China views the island as part of its territory and hasn’t ruled out the use of force to unify the nations.
In addition, China has said it would launch a war if Taiwan were ever to officially declare independence. Lai, like his predecessor, former President Tsai Ing-wen, has maintained that there is no need to do so, as Taiwan is already an independent state.
Last week, China issued a no-sail zone warning in waters near Taiwan.
Maritime Safety Administration of China’s eastern Zhejiang province issued the navigational warning for a “military exercises” in the East China Sea from Wednesday to Friday as China’s military deployed 22 aircraft and six vessels.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Tropical Storm Beryl is expected to strengthen into a Category 1 hurricane on Sunday before making landfall in Texas sometime Sunday night into early Monday morning.
The latest update on the storm’s track and timing is a little different from what we were seeing on Saturday and it will have an impact on what we see in North Texas.
The timeline for Beryl making landfall has moved up in the latest models.
We are now looking at Beryl making landfall around 1 or 2 a.m. near Matagorda, about 100 miles southwest of Houston.
On Saturday morning, the pressure dropped, meaning it is strengthening.
Infrared satellite shows the storm is becoming more organized as it slowly moves toward the coast.
The winds have not strengthened at this time, but they likely will in the coming hours.
Beryl will likely be a Category 1 hurricane by the time it makes landfall.
Right now, Beryl’s projected path shows the storm making landfall in Matagorda, between Corpus Christi and Houston.
Significant storm surge is expected along the coast with some areas to see between 3 and 6 feet.
Hurricane warnings and storm surge watches and warnings are in place.
Once it makes landfall, it will lift to the north and then eventually to the northeast.
The National Hurricane Center has narrowed its cone of uncertainty, meaning it has honed in on the areas it expects to be affected.
Because Beryl looks to have taken more of a northeast turn and the projected path has moved east, much of the Metroplex will not be impacted by the storm.
We are now focusing on the areas to the east and southeast of Dallas.
A flood watch is in effect until Tuesday for those areas.
Still keep an eye on the forecast, because it will be feast or famine, depending on where you live.
The east and southeast of the Metroplex could see 4 to 7 inches of rain. Areas west of I-35 will see minimal impact.
HOUSTON (AP) — Beryl was hurtling across the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico on a collision course with Texas, forecast to pick up strength and regain hurricane status before nearing the coast Sunday and making landfall the following day with heavy rains, howling winds and dangerous storm surge.
A hurricane warning was declared for a large stretch of the coast from Baffin Bay, south of Corpus Christi, to Sargent, south of Houston, and storm surge warnings were also in effect. Other parts were under tropical storm warnings.
“We’re expecting the storm to make landfall somewhere on the Texas coast sometime Monday, if the current forecast is correct,” said Jack Beven, a senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. “Should that happen, it’ll most likely be a Category 1 hurricane.”
As of Saturday night, Beryl was about 330 miles (535 kilometers) southeast of Corpus Christi and had top sustained winds of 60 mph (95 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center. It was moving northwest at 13 mph (20 kph).
The earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, Beryl caused at least 11 deaths as it passed through the Caribbean earlier in the week. It then battered Mexico as a Category 2 hurricane, toppling trees but causing no injuries or deaths before weakening to a tropical storm as it moved across the Yucatan Peninsula.
Texas officials warned people along the entire coastline to prepare for possible flooding, heavy rain and wind.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who is acting governor while Gov. Greg Abbott is traveling in Taiwan, issued a preemptive disaster declaration for 121 counties.
“Beryl is a determined storm, and incoming winds and potential flooding will pose a serious threat to Texans who are in Beryl’s path at landfall and as it makes its way across the state for the following 24 hours,” Patrick said Saturday in a statement.
Some coastal cities called for voluntary evacuations in low-lying areas that are prone to flooding, banned beach camping and urged tourists traveling on the Fourth of July holiday weekend to move recreational vehicles from coastal parks.
Mitch Thames, a spokesman for Matagorda County, said officials issued a voluntary evacuation request for the coastal areas of the county about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southwest of Houston.
“Our No. 1 goal is the health and safety of all our visitors and of course our residents. I’m not so much worried about our residents. Those folks that live down there, they’re used to this, they get it,” Thames said.
In Corpus Christi, officials asked visitors to cut their trips short and return home early if possible. Residents were advised to secure homes by boarding up windows if necessary and using sandbags to guard against possible flooding.
Traffic has been nonstop for the past three days at an Ace Hardware in the city as customers buy tarps, rope, duct tape, sandbags and generators, employee Elizabeth Landry said Saturday.
“They’re just worried about the wind, the rain,” she said. “They’re wanting to prepare just in case.”
Ben Koutsoumbaris, general manager of Island Market on Corpus Christi’s Padre Island, said there has been “definitely a lot of buzz about the incoming storm,” with customers stocking up on food and drinks — particularly meat and beer.
“I heard there’s been some talk about people having like hurricane parties,” he said by telephone.
In Refugio County, north of Corpus Christi, officials issued a mandatory evacuation order for its 6,700 residents.
Before hitting Mexico, Beryl wrought destruction in Jamaica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Barbados. Three people were reported dead in Grenada, three in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, three in Venezuela and two in Jamaica.
Vertuno reported from Austin, Texas. Associated Press writer Mark Thiessen in Anchorage, Alaska, contributed.
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