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Texas carries out nation’s first execution since Christa Pike’s failed lethal injection
Howard became the 30th person executed in the U.S. this year after courts rejected claims that Texas’s pentobarbital supply posed similar risks.
On Wednesday, Texas executed 46-year-old Jamaal Howard via lethal injection at the Huntsville Unit for the 2000 capital murder of convenience store clerk Vickie Swartout, marking the nation's 30th execution this year.
Attorneys unsuccessfully sought to block the procedure by citing risks from Tennessee's failed execution of Christa Pike last week, alongside arguments that Howard was intellectually disabled and Texas' pentobarbital supply was degraded.
Surveillance video captured the 2000 robbery in Silsbee where Howard fatally shot Swartout; before the injection, Howard apologized to the family, saying, "I wish that you accept my apology."
Howard was pronounced dead 19 minutes after the procedure began; his sister, witnessing the execution, became distraught and was assisted out by corrections officers after exclaiming, "Get me out of here."
This procedure was the seventh execution in Texas this year; state officials plan two additional executions later in 2026, continuing the state's active use of capital punishment.