Texas executes Jamaal Howard, first US execution since Christa Pike botch
Jamaal Howard, 46, was put to death by lethal injection in Huntsville on Wednesday evening — the first execution in the US since Tennessee's botched attempt on Christa Pike on 30 September. He was pronounced dead at 8:03 p.m. CT.
Texas has carried out the first US execution since Tennessee’s botched lethal injection of Christa Pike, putting Jamaal Howard, 46, to death on Wednesday evening at the Huntsville Unit prison.
Howard was pronounced dead at 8:03 p.m. CT after a fatal dose of pentobarbital — the seventh inmate executed in Texas this year and the 30th in the nation, according to USA Today and CNA.
Howard was convicted of the 2000 murder of Vickie Swartout, 42, a clerk at a gas station in Silsbee, Texas, shot once in the chest during a robbery caught on surveillance video.
Howard apologised to members of the victim’s family watching through the viewing window: “I wish that you accept my apology and I wish for your forgiveness,” he said. “I’m sorry for what happened. I wish you can learn to forgive me one of these days.” He closed: “Hey, enjoy life, and peace to y’all.”
He gasped, coughed and made snoring sounds before falling still within 30 seconds; he was pronounced dead 19 minutes later.
His lawyers’ late appeals — citing the Pike botch and concerns he was intellectually disabled — failed: the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied the stay without an opinion, and the US Supreme Court declined to intervene without comment.
Pike, who survived two doses of pentobarbital on 30 September, was speaking by Tuesday, with her lawyers saying she is “angry and confused”; a judge on Wednesday ordered preservation of all evidence from the failed execution, The Times reported.
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