A death‑row inmate was executed by lethal injection on Wednesday evening in Texas, the first execution in the United States since the failed attempt to put former death‑row inmate Christa Pike to death last week using the same method.
Lawyers for 46‑year‑old Jamaal Howard asked a judge to pause the execution because Pike’s injection had failed, arguing that the pentobarbital used in Texas was the same degraded drug used on Pike. The courts denied the request, and the state carried out the execution at the Huntsville prison, pronounced dead at 20:03 local time.
Howard had been convicted and sentenced to death in 2000 for the murder of convenience‑store clerk Vickie Swartout during a robbery. He was 20 when he shot Swartout, who was 42, and stole a carton of cigarettes and $114 from the register.
His attorneys argued that Texas was about to inject him with the same drug that was used on Pike and that the supply had degraded. In addition, the lawyers requested that Governor Greg Abbott delay the execution by 30 days so they could investigate the drug’s condition, a request the governor did not grant.
A court twice denied Howard’s appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court also rejected a last‑minute appeal late Wednesday, leaving the execution to proceed.
In the witness room, Howard apologized to Swartout’s family. “I wish that you accept my apology, and I wish for your forgiveness. I’m sorry for what happened. I wish you can learn to forgive me one of these days,” he said.
