US Executes Man a Week After Woman Survives Botched Execution

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Washington: On Wednesday, October 7, Texas executed 46-year-old Jamaal Howard via lethal injection, becoming the first person executed in the United States since a botched execution attempt left Tennessee death-row inmate Christa Pike alive a week earlier. Howard died at 8:03 p.m. at Huntsville State Prison after receiving a deadly dose of pentobarbital, the same poison used in Pike's failed execution attempt.

This was the 30th execution carried out in the United States this year. In 2000, Howard was sentenced to death for murdering Vickie Swartout, a 42-year-old convenience store clerk, during a robbery in Silsbee, Texas.

Prosecutors said Howard, who was 20 at the time, shot Swartout in the chest and stole $114 and a carton of cigarettes. Surveillance footage of the killing was shown at his trial.
Lawyers made many last-minute attempts to halt the execution. They raised questions about the use and quality of pentobarbital following Pike's unsuccessful execution, as well as Howard's intellectual disability, arguing that he was constitutionally ineligible to be executed. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied the pleas, and the United States Supreme Court similarly declined to intervene.

The execution occurred as doubts remained about what went wrong during Pike's September 30 execution attempt in Tennessee. Pike, 50, received two doses of pentobarbital but survived and was sent to the hospital after remaining alive throughout the treatment. Her lawyers announced this week that she had regained consciousness and was communicating, but her prognosis remained unknown, and a long recovery was predicted.
According to sources, the bungled execution of Pike has raised questions about lethal injection methods and drug supply. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has stopped the state's remaining scheduled executions and requested an investigation into the matter.