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Texas executes Jamaal Howard, first U.S. execution since Christa Pike's failed lethal injection
Jamaal Howard, 46, was put to death Wednesday evening in Huntsville, Texas — the 30th U.S. execution this year and the first since Tennessee's failed attempt to execute Christa Pike a week earlier. He was convicted of a 2000 convenience-store murder.
Why it matters
Texas carried out the 30th execution in the United States this year on Wednesday evening — and the first anywhere in the country since Tennessee's failed attempt to execute Christa Pike a week earlier. Howard's lawyers had asked courts to pause the execution, citing the risk that the same drug would fail again. The request was denied.
Full report
Jamaal Howard, 46, was pronounced dead at 8:03 p.m. local time after receiving a fatal dose of pentobarbital at the state prison in Huntsville, Texas. He was convicted of capital murder for shooting Vickie Swartout, 42, a convenience store clerk in Silsbee, during a robbery in May 2000, and was sentenced to death in 2001.
Witnesses said Howard gasped and coughed as the drug began flowing, then made snoring sounds that grew quieter; all movement stopped within about 30 seconds. In his final statement he apologized to members of his victim's family watching through a window and said he hoped they could learn to forgive him.
His legal team argued he is intellectually disabled, with an IQ measured between 65 and 70, and warned that Texas planned to use the same pentobarbital that failed in Tennessee. Christa Pike, 50, survived two doses of pentobarbital on September 30 and is conscious and receiving hospital care; Tennessee has since halted all scheduled executions.
According to the Associated Press, Texas has executed seven people so far in 2026, including Howard, and has two more executions scheduled later this year.
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