Jamaal Howard, 46, is scheduled to be executed at 6pm Central Time in Texas – midnight in the UK – just days after Christa Pike, 50, was left on a ventilator following two failed lethal injection attempts in Tennessee. According to Pike’s lawyer, she is now ‘conscious, speaking and continues to receive medical care’.
Howard’s spiritual advisor, Dr Jeff Hood, told Metro that he informed Howard last week about what happened to Pike. ‘I thought he would be upset, but I was wrong. He told me, “I am not worried, because the warden will just come and shoot me in the head”, which is clearly not based in reality,’ Dr Jeff said.
Intellectual disability and brain injury
Howard has an IQ of 65, below the 70 threshold required to be declared intellectually disabled. Prosecutors pushed for him to be sentenced to death. He was found guilty of murdering petrol station worker Vicky Swartout in May 2000. Aged 20, he had stolen his granddad’s gun before firing at Vicky. Police said he was remorseless, and stole a carton of cigarettes and less than £100 as Vicky lay dying beneath him. He was placed on Death Row in April 2001.
Howard’s family, alongside Dr Jeff, argue he was shot in the head. He still refers to his traumatic brain injury as just ‘holes in his head’. He fails to recognise people he has known for years, even mistaking Dr Jeff – wearing his clerical collar – for his attorney. When asked about the murder, he insists Vicky ‘reached out and took the bullet from the gun, and put it in herself’.
Lack of understanding and concern over coverage
‘When you talk about the lethal injection drugs, he thinks you are talking about drugs that would get you high or something,’ Dr Jeff said. ‘He really has no idea it will end his life.’ Dr Jeff added: ‘My worst fear is going into the chamber with him today, and him telling me he doesn’t know what’s going on.’
It is not known what caused Pike’s lethal injections to fail. Her arms were left burned and blistered after the executioner struggled to find a vein. Tennessee authorities have not confirmed whether they will attempt to execute her again if she recovers. Pike was set to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years, after being sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.
Howard’s loved ones have found it frustrating that his case has failed to gain traction while Pike’s has dominated the news cycle. Dr Jeff said: ‘It feels like a white woman is inherently more worthy of coverage and engagement from activists. Jamaal is the complete opposite. He is an intellectually disabled person of colour. It seems like the wider movement against the death penalty has throwaway cases, that they let happen. Jamaal can’t advocate for himself, so this has been one of them.’
