Lawyers asked Abbott for delay, citing refusal to disclose drug history
Texas scheduled the execution of death-row inmate Jamaal Howard for 6 p.m. CDT on Wednesday, using pentobarbital — the same drug that failed to kill Christa Pike in Tennessee last week after two doses, according to United Press International.
If carried out, Howard’s execution would be the first carried out since the failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee last week, UPI reported.
Howard, 46, was convicted of capital murder in 2001, when he was 20, for shooting Vickie Swartout, 42, at a convenience store and stealing $114 from the cash register and a carton of cigarettes, UPI reported.
Howard’s lawyers asked Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to delay the execution for 30 days while they obtained more information about the drug to be used in the lethal injection. An appeals court denied the stay on Wednesday, UPI reported.
Texas obtains pentobarbital from compounding pharmacies because drug manufacturers refuse to sell it for executions, according to UPI. Because the supply is limited, the state extends the use date after testing its supply. Critics have argued that the method is unsafe.
Howard’s lawyers also asked the Texas Department of Criminal Justice about the specific drug planned for Howard’s execution and where it had been stored, but the department refused to answer, UPI reported.
“We do not ask you to decide anything about Mr. Howard’s case other than this: that he should not be executed with a drug whose history the state has refused to let his lawyers see, within days of the same drug failing in another state,” Howard’s lawyers wrote in a letter to Abbott, according to UPI.
Howard’s lawyers have filed separate petitions pending before the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that Howard has an intellectual disability.
If the execution is carried out, Howard would be the seventh man executed in Texas this year. Two more men are scheduled to be put to death in Texas in 2026, UPI reported.