Texas kills man in first US execution since Christa Pike’s botched lethal injection | Texas

A Texas man was put to death Wednesday in the first execution in the United States since the botched lethal injection of Christa Pike in Tennessee last week.

Jamaal Howard, 46, was pronounced dead at 8:03 p.m. after receiving a fatal dose of pentobarbital, a sedative, at Huntsville State Prison.

Howard’s lawyers sought to halt the execution, arguing before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that there were similar risks in executing Howard using the same lethal injection drug used on Pike. Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital and had complained that his arms felt like they were going to explode when he was given the drug.

“Texas should not rush to follow in Tennessee’s footsteps,” Howard’s lawyers argued.

The court denied the request for a stay and later rejected a second attempt to prevent the execution because of drugs. The court denied both without elaborating. The US Supreme Court also rejected a late appeal on Wednesday evening, without comment.

Texas has executed six people so far this year, and two more lethal injections are planned after Howard. This is the 30th person executed nationwide in 2026.

Howard was convicted of capital murder in 2001 for robbing a convenience store in Silsbee, a town north of Beaumont, and fatally shooting 42-year-old employee Vickie Swartout.

Asked by the warden if he had a closing statement, Howard apologized profusely to his victim’s family members, who were watching through a window just feet from the death chamber.

“I hope you accept my apology and I want your forgiveness,” he said shortly before the injection began. “I’m sorry for what happened. I wish you could learn to forgive me one of these days.”

His legal team argued that at the time of the crime, Howard was intellectually disabled and therefore could not receive the death penalty, as the Supreme Court ruled in 2002.

Pike regained consciousness on Tuesday. Her lawyers say she suffers from pneumonia and is unable to move her arms.

Pike’s is the second botched execution in Tennessee this year, and Gov. Bill Lee has banned any further lethal injections for the rest of the year. He also ordered an investigation into why Pike’s execution failed. Pike’s lawyers had previously argued that his blood disorder would make a lethal injection painful. Speculation is also rife about the quality of pentobarbital.

“There is a similar risk,” Howard’s attorneys wrote in the motion filed Wednesday with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, “that Texas execution drugs will also be degraded because they are well past the original expiration dates that the pharmacopoeia allows for drugs of this type.”

Last week, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a request to stay Howard’s execution.

Texas officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday morning.

The Associated Press contributed to this report