Texas on Wednesday executed Jamaal Howard, 46, for the 2000 murder of a convenience store clerk, the first execution in the United States since Tennessee's failed attempt to put Christa Pike to death last week. Howard received a lethal dose of pentobarbital, a sedative, at the state prison in Huntsville and was pronounced dead at 8:03 pm local time. He is the 30th person executed nationwide this year.
Howard was convicted of capital murder for the killing of Vickie Swartout, 42, who was shot once in the chest during a robbery in Silsbee, a small rural town about 100 miles (161 km) northeast of Houston. Court records say Howard, then 20, took $114 and a carton of cigarettes from the store. Surveillance video showing the shooting was presented at trial. Asked for a final statement, he apologized to Swartout's relatives, who watched through a viewing window. "I wish that you accept my apology and I wish for your forgiveness," he said.
His lawyers had sought to halt the execution on several grounds. They argued that Texas planned to use the same drug given to Pike, who survived two doses of pentobarbital and reportedly complained that her arms felt as if they would explode. The attorneys said there was a similar risk that Texas's supply was degraded, noting it was far past the original beyond-use dates allowed by pharmacy standards. "Texas should not be eager to follow in Tennessee's footsteps," they wrote. The Texas court of criminal appeals twice denied requests for a stay without explanation, the US Supreme Court rejected a late appeal without comment, and a federal appeals court had earlier declined to intervene. Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, did not grant a request for a 30-day delay.
Howard's lawyers also argued he was intellectually disabled and therefore ineligible for execution. The US Supreme Court barred executing intellectually disabled people in 2002, though it has given states some discretion in how disability is determined. The state said Howard had not presented evidence meeting the requirements for such a claim.
The case comes amid heightened scrutiny of lethal injection. Pike's lawyers say she regained consciousness but has pneumonia and cannot move her arms. Hers was the second botched execution in Tennessee this year; Governor Bill Lee has barred further lethal injections there for the rest of the year and ordered an investigation into what went wrong. Pike's lawyers had argued that a blood disorder would make lethal injection painful, and questions have also been raised about the quality of the pentobarbital.
Texas has now carried out six executions this year, with two more scheduled. Florida has carried out the most of any state, with 16.