Texas court denies request to stop execution over Christa Pike's failed lethal injection
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A Texas court on Wednesday refused to halt the execution of a man who fatally shot a convenience store clerk after his attorneys cited the failed lethal injection of Christa Pike in Tennessee.
The Texas execution was scheduled to take place later Wednesday and would be the first in the U.S. since Pike survived the attempted execution last week.
Because Texas planned to inject the same drug used in Pike's attempted execution — pentobarbital — attorneys for 46-year-old Jamaal Howard argued to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that the drug poses similar risks. They also raised concerns about the quality of the state's execution drugs.
The court denied the request for a stay and later denied a second attempt to stop the execution over the drug. The court denied both without elaboration. The U.S. Supreme Court also denied a late appeal Wednesday evening without comment.
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. They said she was unconscious at a hospital after the attempt but was awake and speaking by Tuesday.
“Texas should not be eager to follow in Tennessee’s footsteps; a stay would keep that from happening,” Howard's attorneys argued in their earlier filing.
Texas has executed six people so far this year, with two more lethal injections scheduled after Howard. He would become the 30th person executed nationwide in 2026.
On Wednesday, Howard was described as “chatty” during the 45-mile (70-kilometer) 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,” she said, adding he was taken to a small holding cell near the death chamber where he remained talkative.
“He was asking questions and was very engaged in the process,” Hernandez said.
Howard was convicted of capital murder in the 2000 killing of Vickie Swartout, 42, who was shot once in the chest during a store robbery. Evidence presented at trial included store surveillance video that showed Howard shooting Swartout.
Howard, then age 20, took $114 and a carton of cigarettes from the store in the small, rural town of Silsbee, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northeast of Houston, according to court records.
His attorneys have argued to the U.S. Supreme Court that Howard's execution should be halted because he is intellectually disabled. But the state said his attorneys haven't presented evidence showing he meets the requirements for a claim of intellectual disability. The court late Wednesday rejected Howard's appeal in a brief notice without elaborating.
In 2002, the Supreme Court had barred the execution of intellectually disabled people. But it has given states some discretion in determining intellectual disability.
In their filings in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Howard's attorneys said they filed requests for information about the lethal dose of pentobarbital the Texas Department of Criminal Justice planned to use.
The attorneys said the department asked for a state attorney general opinion about whether it must disclose that information, but that opinion is not expected to be returned until after Wednesday.
Texas officials did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday.
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 there for the rest of the year.
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Stengle reported from Fort Worth, Texas.
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