A death row inmate has been executed in the US just days after Christa Pike’s botched lethal injection. Jamaal Howard, 46, was put to death in a Texas prison on Wednesday, a week after Pike, 50, was injected in Tennessee with two doses of pentobarbital but survived.
Crime and sentence
Howard had been sentenced to death over shooting and killing store clerk Vickie Swartout during a robbery in 2000, when he was aged 20. He was injected with the same chemical as Pike despite his lawyers’ attempts to stop the procedure with the state’s criminal appeals court, citing risks.
His attorneys also tried to plead his case with the US Supreme Court, saying the execution should be stopped due to his disability. Howard has an IQ of 65, which is below the 70 limit for someone to be declared intellectually disabled.
Reaction of spiritual advisor
The inmate’s spiritual advisor, Dr Jeff Hood, spoke to Metro about how Howard reacted when he was told about Pike’s fate. He said the information did not ‘really register’ to his client. Dr Hood said: ‘When you talk about the lethal injection drugs, he thinks you are talking about drugs that would get you high or something. ‘He really has no idea it will end his life.’
Execution goes ahead
Despite the family’s insistence that Howard did not have the capacity to understand his crimes or the death sentence, the execution went ahead at 6pm Central Time in Texas. The court was told that Howard’s attorneys did not show evidence that would prove he met the requirement for intellectual disability.
Two more executions have been scheduled in Texas this year. Pike stunned the world as she survived the lethal injections but was taken to a hospital, where her recovery is still uncertain. The convicted murderer spoke for the first time yesterday, according to her representatives, who revealed her first words.
