Texas Executes Jamaal Howard After Supreme Court Declines Appeal

Texas executed Jamaal Howard on Wednesday, October 7, after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to halt the lethal injection. State officials said Howard, 46, was pronounced dead at 8:03 p.m. at the Huntsville Unit after receiving pentobarbital. It was the first execution in the United States since Christa Pike survived an attempted execution in Tennessee on September 30. Howard’s lawyers had asked courts to stop the execution, arguing that Texas’s use of pentobarbital could pose risks similar to those in Pike’s case. Pike survived two doses of the drug during the Tennessee attempt. Her lawyers said she was conscious and speaking by Tuesday while continuing to receive medical care. The supplied reports do not establish what caused the attempt to fail or whether that cause had any connection to Texas’s execution drug or procedure. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Howard’s emergency appeal without explanation, according to reports of the court’s action. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had also denied requests to stop the execution. Howard’s lawyers separately argued that he had an intellectual disability and should not be executed.