A Texas man convicted of killing a convenience store clerk during a robbery was executed Wednesday evening after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to stop the punishment. His attorneys had challenged the use of the lethal-injection drug involved in a failed execution attempt in Tennessee the previous week.
Jamaal Howard, 46, was pronounced dead at 8:03 p.m. He had been sentenced to death for the 2000 killing of 42-year-old Vickie Swartout in Silsbee, Texas.
Before the execution, Howard’s lawyers cited the failed attempt to execute Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike. Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital on Sept. 30, and the attorneys argued that Texas’ planned use of the same drug presented similar risks.
“Texas should not be eager to follow in Tennessee’s footsteps; a stay would keep that from happening,” Howard’s attorneys wrote in a court filing.
The Supreme Court denied Howard’s emergency appeal without offering an explanation. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the only justice to publicly dissent, Fox News reported.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had already rejected two requests seeking to block the execution over concerns about the drug.
As the pentobarbital began taking effect Wednesday evening, Howard took several breaths and gasped, according to The Associated Press.
He then made snoring sounds, coughed and began snoring again. The sounds gradually became quieter.
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Howard’s movements stopped completely after about 30 seconds. He was pronounced dead 19 minutes later.
In court filings, Howard’s attorneys also said they had sought details about the pentobarbital dose the Texas Department of Criminal Justice intended to administer.
Their concerns were fueled in part by Pike’s execution attempt, during which she reportedly survived two doses of pentobarbital.
Howard was executed on the same day a Tennessee judge granted Pike’s attorneys’ request requiring the Tennessee Department of Correction to preserve evidence related to the failed attempt.
The Death Penalty Information Center says Pike is the first person in the modern era to survive a lethal-injection execution attempt.
Howard’s attorneys also asked the Supreme Court to stop the execution on the grounds that he was intellectually disabled.
The state countered that his attorneys had not produced evidence showing he satisfied the legal criteria for intellectual disability.
Howard was convicted of capital murder in Swartout’s death. She was shot once in the chest during a convenience store robbery.
Howard was 20 years old at the time and took $114 from the store’s cash register during the robbery.