Inmate Hours Away From Lethal Injection Pike Received Speaks Out

A Texas death row prisoner facing execution within hours has speculated that authorities could resort to shooting him in the head if the lethal-injection drugs fail, as they did during Christa Pike’s attempted execution.

Jamaal Howard was sentenced to death for fatally shooting a convenience-store clerk in 2000. His execution is scheduled for tonight, but his attorneys are asking a judge to postpone it after Pike’s failed execution in Tennessee last week.

Texas plans to use pentobarbital, the same drug administered during Pike’s unsuccessful execution. Howard’s lawyers argue that the drug carries similar risks in his case and contend that the state’s supply may have deteriorated.

Dr. Jeff Hood, Howard’s spiritual adviser, described the inmate’s reaction to the Tennessee incident in an article for the Texas Observer.

Hood wrote: “When I told him that the drugs didn’t work in her case, he didn’t understand what drugs I was talking about. To him, nothing made sense. Suddenly both of us fell silent.

“Finally Jamaal said: ‘I guess if the drugs don’t work, they’ll just shoot me in the head.’”

Pike’s attorneys are seeking answers about the execution attempt after the 50-year-old survived two doses of pentobarbital. She was taken to a hospital and, as of Tuesday, was awake and speaking.

Her lawyers say the procedure was complicated by blown veins, in which a needle passes through the vein and allows blood and fluid to escape. They have also raised concerns about degraded pentobarbital in Tennessee and inadequate emergency medical treatment.

“There is a similar risk,” Howard’s attorneys wrote, “that Texas’s execution drugs are likewise degraded, as they are far past the original beyond-use dates that the pharmacopeia allows for drugs of this kind.”

Texas has carried out six executions so far this year. Two additional executions are scheduled after Howard’s, which would bring the national total to 30 in 2026.

Howard, 46, was convicted of capital murder in the 2000 killing of Vickie Swartout, 42. She was shot once in the chest during a robbery, and prosecutors presented surveillance footage showing Howard firing the weapon.

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According to court records, Howard was 20 when he took $114 and a carton of cigarettes from the store in Silsbee, a small rural community about 100 miles northeast of Houston.

His lawyers also maintain that Howard is intellectually disabled and therefore ineligible for execution. The state has responded that he has not produced evidence meeting the legal standard for an intellectual-disability claim.

An appeal seeking to stop the execution is currently pending before the US Supreme Court.

In 2002, the Supreme Court barred the execution of people with intellectual disabilities. However, it left states with some discretion in determining whether a person meets that definition.

In a motion filed early Wednesday with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Howard’s attorneys said they had requested details about the pentobarbital dose that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice intends to use. They said the department sought an opinion from the state attorney general on whether the information must be released, despite a “years-long practice of disclosing information.”

The attorney general’s opinion is not expected until after Wednesday. Howard’s lawyers argue that this timing would prevent them from challenging whatever decision the state makes about releasing the drug information.

Texas officials did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday morning.

Florida has carried out 16 executions so far this year, the most of any state. Most states that allow executions use lethal injection as their primary method.

Tennessee’s Republican Gov. Bill Lee has halted the one remaining execution for the rest of the year.