Alabama prison officials carried out the execution of death row inmate William Glenn Boyd using sodium thiopental as one of the drugs in the lethal injection.

Prison spokesman Brian Corbett said the Department of Corrections has enough of the drug to carry out two more executions that have been requested by the attorney general's office. Sodium thiopental was used in the execution of Boyd Thursday night at Holman Prison in Atmore.

But prison officials said because of the nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental, prison officials are planning to eventually amend the protocol of drugs used in lethal injections and instead use the drug pentobarbital.

A nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental has caused some states to search for new suppliers since the sole U.S. manufacturer suspended production in 2009.

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