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Texas executes Jamaal Howard after failed injection
Courts allowed Texas to proceed despite defense claims that its execution drug carried risks raised by Tennessee’s failed attempt.
What happened
Texas executed Jamaal Howard with pentobarbital at the Huntsville state prison after courts rejected requests to pause the lethal injection. His lawyers linked their challenge to Tennessee’s failed execution of Christa Pike with the same drug. Howard had been sentenced to death for killing a convenience-store clerk during a robbery.
Numbers
- 46Howard’s age at execution
- 20Howard’s age during the killing
- $114Cash taken during the robbery
Questions
- Why did lawyers seek a delay?
- Lawyers argued that pentobarbital could pose the same risks raised by Pike’s failed execution and sought information about Texas’s supply.
- How did Howard’s appeals end?
- A state court rejected two appeals, and the US Supreme Court turned down his final appeal late on Wednesday.
- Who was the victim?
- She was the convenience-store clerk Howard was convicted of killing during a robbery that also involved taking cigarettes and cash.
- Could the governor delay it?
- Howard’s lawyers asked Governor Greg Abbott for a thirty-day delay to seek drug information, but he did not grant it.
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The catch
The coverage does not determine whether the drug supply was degraded or whether Howard faced the risks his lawyers claimed.