Supreme Court gives new life to death penalty debate

Kent Sprouse is lucky. The state that plans to kill him Thursday recently received a new supply of pentobarbital, the drug of choice for executioners in a country fast running out of humane ways to perform lethal injections.

That should give Texas enough of the barbiturate to execute four death row inmates at its Huntsville state penitentiary this month and maintain its status as the nation's leader in lethal injections — more than 500 since it became the first to use that method in 1982.