Man Who Stabbed Victim 94 Times Scheduled for Execution

A Rio Grande Valley man is to die for the slaying 14 years ago of a man found bound with shoelaces and strips of bedding, stabbed 94 times and robbed of $50.

Attorneys for 37-year-old Arturo Diaz say they're appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court to block his scheduled Thursday evening lethal injection in Huntsville. His execution for the 1999 slaying of Michael Nichols would be the 13th this year in Texas.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials are planning their first use on for Diaz pentobarbital procured from a vendor or manufacturer the prison agency has declined to identify. 

The expiration date of the department's existing lethal drug inventory passed this month, possibly compromising its effectiveness. That prompted Texas officials to go to nontraditional sources for execution drugs.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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