A Texas man who fatally shot a convenience store clerk was put to death Wednesday evening, the Associated Press reports, becoming the 30th person executed in the U.S. this year and the first since Tennessee's failed attempt to administer a lethal injection to Christa Pike a week ago.
Jamaal Howard, 46, was pronounced dead at 8:03 p.m. after receiving a fatal dose of pentobarbital at the state prison in Huntsville. He was convicted of killing Vickie Swartout, 42, in a 2000 store robbery in Silsbee, Texas, that was caught on surveillance video. In his final statement, Howard apologized profusely to members of his victim's family, who watched through a window just feet from the death chamber.
His attorneys had asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to intervene after Pike survived two doses of the same drug, pentobarbital, during a botched execution attempt on September 30. They argued the drug posed similar risks and raised concerns about the quality of Texas's compounded supply. The court denied the stay requests without elaboration, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined a late appeal.
Pike's lawyers said this week she is conscious and speaking after the failed attempt, describing her as 'angry and confused.' Tennessee's governor has halted the state's remaining executions for the year. Texas has now executed seven people in 2026, with two more lethal injections scheduled.
