Lawyers seek to block execution of Jamaal Howard, citing failed execution of Christa Pike
Lawyers for a Texas man who fatally shot a convenience store worker are asking a judge to halt his execution by lethal injection scheduled for Wednesday, citing the failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee last week.
This would be the first planned execution in the United States since Pike.
Because the same drug used in his attempted execution — pentobarbital — would be used in Texas for Jamaal Howard, his attorneys have argued the drug poses the same risks and said they believe the state’s supply has deteriorated.
Pike’s lawyers are seeking more information about what happened after the 50-year-old survived two doses of pentobarbital. She was hospitalized and by Tuesday she was awake and talking.
His lawyers alleged his execution was marred by blown veins, where a needle goes completely through a vein and causes blood and fluid to leak, as well as by the deterioration of Tennessee’s pentobarbital and a lack of emergency medical care.
“There is a similar risk,” Howard’s attorneys wrote, “that Texas execution drugs will also be degraded because they are well past the original expiration dates allowed by the pharmacopoeia for these types of drugs.”
Texas has executed six people so far this year, with two more planned after Howard, which would be the 30th execution nationwide in 2026.
Howard, 46, was convicted of capital murder in the 2000 killing of Vickie Swartout, 42, who was shot in the chest during a robbery. Evidence presented at trial included the store’s surveillance video, which showed Howard shooting Swartout.
Howard, who was 20 at the time, took $114 and a carton of cigarettes from a store in the small rural town of Silsbee, located about 100 miles northeast of Houston, according to court records.
His lawyers argued that Howard was mentally disabled and his execution should be halted. The state said he failed to present evidence showing he qualified for a claim of intellectual disability.
He filed an appeal to the United States Supreme Court to stop his execution.
In 2002, the Supreme Court banned the execution of people with intellectual disabilities. But it gave states some leeway in how they determine these disabilities.
The motion filed Wednesday with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals says Howard’s attorneys have filed requests for information about the lethal dose of pentobarbital the Texas Department of Criminal Justice plans to use. They claim the department sought advice from the state attorney general on whether to release this information, despite a “years-long practice of disclosing information.”
The Texas attorney general’s opinion isn’t expected until Wednesday, meaning Howard can’t challenge any decision the state might make regarding releasing that information, they say.
Texas officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday morning.
Florida has carried out 16 executions so far this year, the most of any state. Most states that allow executions use lethal injection as their primary method.
Republican Tennessee Governor Bill Lee suspended the latest execution for the rest of the year.
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