Texas executes Jamaal Howard after Supreme Court rejects final appeal

A Texas man convicted of killing a convenience store clerk during a robbery in 2000 was executed on Wednesday evening in the United States. Jamaal Howard, 46, was pronounced dead at 8.03 pm after receiving a lethal injection of pentobarbital at the state prison in Huntsville.

Howard became the 30th person executed in the US this year and the first since Tennessee's failed attempt to execute Christa Pike. Earlier in the day, his lawyers tried to stop the execution, arguing that he was intellectually disabled and that Texas used the same drug involved in Pike's case, but the courts rejected the appeals.

Howard was convicted of the capital murder of 42-year-old Vickie Swartout, who was shot once in the chest during a robbery at her store. Prosecutors said surveillance video shown at trial captured Howard shooting Swartout. Court records showed that Howard, who was 20 at the time, took USD 114 and a carton of cigarettes from the store in Silsbee, about 100 miles northeast of Houston.

When the warden asked if he had a final statement, Howard apologised repeatedly to members of Swartout's family, who were watching through a window a few feet away. Before the execution, Howard was "chatty" during the 45-mile drive from the death row prison to the Huntsville Unit, according to Amanda Hernandez, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. "He made small talk with the officers through the whole trip" before being taken to a holding cell near the death chamber, she said. "He was asking questions and was very engaged in the process."

Howard's lawyers filed last-minute appeals in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, raising concerns over the quality of the state's execution drugs. The court rejected that request as well as a second filing on the drugs without comment. They also asked the US Supreme Court to block the execution on the ground that Howard was intellectually disabled. The Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that intellectually disabled people cannot be executed, though states have some freedom in deciding how such disability is assessed.

The state told the court that Howard's lawyers had not presented evidence showing that he met the standard for an intellectual disability claim. Late on Wednesday, the US Supreme Court declined to intervene without comment, allowing the execution to go ahead. Howard's lawyers had also argued that he faced risks similar to those in Pike's case because both Tennessee and Texas use pentobarbital for lethal injections. Pike, 50, survived two doses of pentobarbital on September 30, and her lawyers are seeking more details on what went wrong. They said she was unconscious in hospital after the attempt but was awake and speaking by Tuesday.

Texas has carried out six executions so far in 2026 and has scheduled two more this year. Florida has carried out 16 executions this year, the highest number among US states, while Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has halted the only remaining execution planned in his state this year.

Howard's execution followed the failure of his final legal challenges and came as questions continued over lethal injection drugs after the failed attempt in Tennessee. He was executed for the 2000 killing of store clerk Vickie Swartout, a crime prosecutors said was captured on surveillance video.

With PTI Inputs

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