A Texas death row inmate facing lethal injection within hours has predicted that officials will “shoot me in the head” if the execution drugs fail to work, as happened during Christa Pike’s attempted execution in Tennessee.
Jamaal Howard was convicted of fatally shooting a convenience store clerk in 2000 and is scheduled to be executed tonight. His attorneys are asking a judge to halt the execution, pointing to Pike’s failed execution last week.
Howard is due to receive pentobarbital, the same drug used in Pike’s attempted execution. His lawyers argue that the medication carries similar risks in Texas and contend that the state’s supply may have deteriorated.
Dr. Jeff Hood, Howard’s spiritual adviser, described the inmate’s reaction to news of Pike’s botched execution in an article for the Texas Observer.
Hood wrote: “When I told him that the drugs didn’t work in her case, he didn’t understand what drugs I was talking about. To him, nothing made sense. Suddenly both of us fell silent.
“Finally Jamaal said: ‘I guess if the drugs don’t work, they’ll just shoot me in the head.’”
Pike’s attorneys are seeking more information about what went wrong after the 50-year-old survived two doses of pentobarbital. She was taken to a hospital and, as of Tuesday, was awake and speaking.
Her lawyers allege that the execution was affected by blown veins, in which a needle passes through a vein and causes blood and fluid to leak. They also cited deteriorated pentobarbital and inadequate emergency medical care in Tennessee.
This photo from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows Jamaal Howard on October 28, 2022
“There is a similar risk,” Howard’s attorneys wrote, “that Texas’s execution drugs are likewise degraded, as they are far past the original beyond-use dates that the pharmacopeia allows for drugs of this kind.”
Texas has carried out six executions so far this year. Two additional executions are scheduled after Howard’s, which would make his execution the 30th nationwide in 2026.
Howard, 46, was convicted of capital murder in the 2000 killing of Vickie Swartout, 42. She was shot once in the chest during a robbery. Evidence at trial included surveillance footage from the store showing Howard shooting Swartout.
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Howard was 20 when the killing occurred. According to court records, he took $114 and a carton of cigarettes from the store in Silsbee, a small rural town about 100 miles northeast of Houston.
His attorneys have argued that Howard is intellectually disabled and should not be executed. The state maintains that he has not provided evidence meeting the legal requirements for an intellectual disability claim.
An appeal seeking to stop the execution is pending before the US Supreme Court.
Christa Pike, 50, is awake and “speaking limitedly” one week after executioners attempted to administer two lethal injections
Jamaal Howard, who fatally shot a convenience store clerk in 2000, is scheduled to be executed tonight. His attorneys are seeking a stay, citing Pike’s failed execution in Tennessee last week
The Supreme Court barred the execution of intellectually disabled people in 2002, but left states some discretion in determining whether a person meets that standard.
In a motion filed early Wednesday with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Howard’s attorneys said they had requested information about the lethal dose of pentobarbital that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice intends to use. They said the department sought an opinion from the state attorney general on whether it must release the information, despite a “years-long practice of disclosing information.”
The attorney general’s opinion is not expected until after Wednesday. As a result, Howard’s lawyers said, he may be unable to challenge any decision the state makes about releasing the information before his scheduled execution.
Texas officials did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday morning.
Florida has carried out 16 executions so far this year, the most of any state. Most states that allow executions use lethal injection as their primary method.
Tennessee’s Republican Gov. Bill Lee has halted the one remaining execution for the rest of the year.