Texas To Execute Man With Possibly Expired Drugs

By Jon Herskovitz

AUSTIN, Texas, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Texas plans to execute Willie Tyrone Trottie on Wednesday for killing two people during a shooting spree sparked by a breakup with his girlfriend.

Trottie, 45, will be given a lethal injection at the state's death chamber in Huntsville at 6 p.m. CDT (2300 GMT). If the execution goes ahead, he would be the 516th prisoner put to death in Texas since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, the most of any state.

The death penalty has attracted more scrutiny following botched executions this year, including one in Oklahoma where the prisoner took 43 minutes to die because of a poorly placed IV, prompting the White House to seek a review of the process.

Trottie was convicted of the 1993 murder of his former girlfriend Barbara Canada, 24, and her brother Titus in an attack that left two other members of the Canada family wounded.

Trottie kicked in the door of the Canada family home and opened fire with a handgun, wounding Barbara's mother, sister and brother. The brother then shot Trottie with a handgun, hitting him several times, Texas law enforcement officials said.

A wounded Trottie than found Barbara in a bedroom and shot her 11 times. He returned to where the brother was laying and shot him in the back of the head in front of children who were in the residence.

Trottie was arrested shortly after the incident at a hospital where he was seeking treatment.

Lawyers for Trottie have tried to seek a stay, saying the lethal injection drug may have passed its expiration date.

Oklahoma, Texas and other states have been scrambling to find new suppliers and chemical combinations after drugmakers, mostly in Europe, imposed sales bans because they objected to medications made for other purposes being used in executions.

The states have turned to lightly regulated compounding pharmacies, which can mix chemical for medicines, to supply the drugs, while trying to keep the name of supplier secret. (Reporting by Jon Herskovitz. Editing by Andre Grenon)