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Drug Swap Sparks Hearing on Serial Killer Alfredo Prieto's Execution

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the lethal injection of Alfredo Prieto.
Image: Alfredo Prieto
Virginia is poised to execute Prieto, a serial killer, who claims he’s intellectually disabled using lethal injection drugs from Texas because the state’s supply of another controversial drug will expire the day before the execution is supposed to take place.Virginia Department of Corrections via AP

A convicted serial killer caught a break Wednesday when a federal judge ordered a hearing on his complaint that Virginia "recklessly" obtained its lethal injection chemicals from Texas.

Alfred Prieto, 49, was sentenced to death in two states for four slayings and is suspected in several other murders.

He is due to be put to death in Virginia on Thursday evening, but filed an emergency motion after learning that Virginia had obtained the pentobarbital for the execution not from a pharmacy but from the Texas prison system.

Image: Alfredo Prieto
Virginia is poised to execute Prieto, a serial killer, who claims he’s intellectually disabled using lethal injection drugs from Texas because the state’s supply of another controversial drug will expire the day before the execution is supposed to take place.Virginia Department of Corrections via AP

Prieto's lawyers argued that Virginia has no information about the "quality and authenticity" of the drugs and can't guarantee they won't cause an excruciating death and violate the constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

Texas has confirmed it supplied three vials of pentobarbital and tested them for purity, but refused to say where the drugs came from, citing a secrecy law.

U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga ordered a hearing Thursday afternoon where he will decide whether to prevent the 9 p.m. execution so the matter can be explored further.