Texas kills man in first US execution since botched lethal injection of Christa Pike

Key Points:

• Jamaal Howard, 46, was executed in Texas on Wednesday using pentobarbital, marking the first US execution since the botched lethal injection of Christa Pike in Tennessee last week.
• Howard’s lawyers unsuccessfully sought to halt the execution, citing risks similar to Pike’s case where she survived two doses and suffered severe pain, but Texas courts and the US Supreme Court denied appeals without comment.
• Howard was convicted in 2001 of capital murder for robbing a convenience store and killing clerk Vickie Swartout; he apologized to the victim’s family before his execution and his legal team argued he was intellectually disabled at the time of the crime.
• Pike’s failed execution led Tennessee’s governor to suspend lethal injections for the year and order an investigation, amid concerns over drug quality and administration, while Howard’s lawyers raised similar concerns about the pentobarbital used in Texas.
• Texas has executed six people in 2026 so far, with two more executions scheduled, and Howard is the 30th person executed nationwide this year.