Texas executed Jamaal Howard on Wednesday night at the Huntsville Unit, the first execution in the United States since Tennessee failed to put Christa Pike to death with the same drug a week earlier, The Independent reported.
Howard, 46, was pronounced dead at 8:03 p.m. after a dose of pentobarbital. He was the seventh person executed in Texas this year and the 30th in the nation. He had been convicted of capital murder in the May 12, 2000, killing of Vickie Swartout, a 42-year-old convenience store clerk, during a robbery in Silsbee, about 100 miles northeast of Houston. Court records show he was 20 at the time and took $114 and a carton of cigarettes. Surveillance video was played at trial.
In a final statement, Howard apologized to members of Swartout’s family who watched from an adjacent room. “I wish that you accept my apology and I wish for your forgiveness,” he said. “I’m sorry for what happened.” He thanked friends and family and said he was at peace. His sister, also a witness, became distraught and asked to leave the room. She was escorted out by corrections officers.
The Associated Press is reporting the execution of Jamaal Howard has been carried out by the state of Texas. https://t.co/2CLfDVj2RI
— KTVU (@KTVU) October 8, 2026
Howard’s lawyers had asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the execution. They argued he is intellectually disabled, a condition the Supreme Court barred states from punishing with death in 2002, and raised concerns about pentobarbital after Pike survived two doses in Tennessee. Both courts declined to intervene. Gov. Greg Abbott did not grant a delay. The state told the court that Howard’s lawyers had not shown he meets the legal test for an intellectual-disability claim. Two more Texas executions are scheduled later this year.
Pike, 50, survived Tennessee’s attempt on the night of Sept. 30 and woke up Tuesday in a Nashville hospital, Fox News reported. Attorney Randy Spivey said her first words were “Where am I?” and “Who are you?” He said her legal and medical teams had believed she was brain dead. Spivey said she has pneumonia, cannot swallow, has a blood clot in one arm and faces a long recovery.
A Davidson County judge ordered the Tennessee Department of Correction to preserve needles, IV lines, drug labels and messages from the attempt. Gov. Bill Lee has halted the state’s remaining execution this year while officials investigate. Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville. Her lawyers have asked that the sentence be commuted to life without parole.
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