Jamaal Howard, a 46-year-old death row inmate convicted of fatally shooting a convenience store clerk, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Wednesday. The execution comes days after Christa Pike survived a failed lethal injection attempt using the same method in Tennessee.
Conviction and Scheduled Execution
Howard was convicted of capital murder for killing Vickie Swartout, 42, by shooting her once in the chest at the store where she worked in Silsbee, Texas, in 2000. Court records show he was 20 at the time and was caught on CCTV taking $114 and a carton of cigarettes from the store.
He is now scheduled to receive a lethal dose of pentobarbital, marking America's 30th execution this year and the first execution in Texas since Pike survived the injection last week.
Legal Challenges
Howard's lawyers argued that he is intellectually disabled and cannot legally be executed, but the state said that he has not presented evidence that would show he meets the requirements for a claim of intellectual disability. An appeal before the US Supreme Court, which ruled in 2002 that executing people with intellectual disabilities violated the Constitution, to halt the execution is also pending.
Christa Pike's Failed Execution
Howard's planned death comes just a week after Pike, 50, survived two doses of pentobarbital after murdering Colleen Slemmer in 1995. Pike, then 18, and her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, beat, tortured, and killed Slemmer, 19, after meeting at a job training centre for troubled teens.
Pike is now "conscious and speaking", her lawyers said yesterday, and continues to receive critical medical care while handcuffed in hospital. Her lawyers previously warned that her medical history, including suffering from the blood-clotting condition thrombocytosis and small veins, would result in "unnecessary" pain and suffering during the lethal injection. She has now endured "severe damage" to her arms, they added.
Dr Joel Zivot, an anaesthesiologist advising Pike's defence team, said the likelihood of her fully recovering is low. However, uncertainties remain as it's currently unclear how much pentobarbital got into her system and what her blood levels were after the injection.
He told the BBC: "Most people who get lethal injection die from it. In fact, pretty well everyone, except Christa. So, the fact that she survived it... was unusual. I would not, in any way, say at this point that all the big risks are behind her."
