Texas carries out first execution in U.S. since Christa Pike's failed lethal injection

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Jamaal Howard, 46, was “chatty” during the 45-mile (70-kilometre) drive from the death row prison to the Huntsville Unit, where executions are carried out. File | Photo Credit: AP

A Texas man who fatally shot a convenience store clerk was put to death Wednesday evening (October 7, 2026), 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.

Jamaal Howard, 46, was pronounced dead at 8.03 p.m. on Wednesday (October 7, 2026) after receiving a fatal dose of pentobarbital at the state prison in Huntsville. He was convicted of killing of Vickie Swartout, 42, in a 2000 store robbery caught on surveillance video.

Asked by the warden if he had a final statement, Howard apologised profusely to members of his victim's family who watched through window a few from him.

Texas has executed six people so far in 2026 and plans two more executions scheduled this year.

Earlier Wednesday (October 7, 2026), Howard's attorneys unsuccessfully sought to block the execution by arguing that he was intellectual disabled and that he faced the same risks similar to those in Pike's case because both states use pentobarbital for lethal injections.

Ms. Pike's lawyers are seeking more information about what went wrong after the 50-year-old woman survived two doses of pentobarbital on Sept. 30. Her lawyers said she was unconscious at a hospital after the attempt but was awake and speaking by Tuesday (October 6, 2026).

On Wednesday (October 7, 2026), Howard was “chatty” during the 45-mile (70-kilometre) drive from the death row prison to the Huntsville Unit, where executions are carried out, said Amanda Hernandez, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

“He made small talk with the officers through the whole trip” before being taken to a holding cell near the death chamber, she said. “He was asking questions and was very engaged in the process.”

Howard was convicted of capital murder in the killing of Swartout, who was shot once in the chest during the robbery. Evidence presented at trial included surveillance video showing Howard shooting Swartout.

Howard, who was 20 at the time, took USD 114 and a carton of cigarettes from the store in Silsbee, a small, rural town about 100 miles (160 kilometres) northeast of Houston, according to court records.

In bidding to halt Howard's execution, his attorneys filed a motion before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals raising concerns about the quality of Texas' execution drugs. The court denied that request and a second filing involving the drugs without comment.

His attorneys also argued unsuccessfully to the US Supreme Court that Howard's execution should be halted because he was intellectually disabled. The Supreme Court in 2002 had barred the execution of intellectually disabled people. But it has given states some discretion in how they determine such disabilities.