Texas executes man who killed convenience store clerk after lawyers sought to stop it, citing Christa Pike
Updated on: October 7, 2026 / 9:29 PM EDT / CBS/AP
TL;DR
- Jamaal Howard, 46, was executed in Texas for the 2000 murder of Vickie Swartout.
- Howard's execution was the 30th in the U.S. this year and the first since a failed lethal injection attempt in Tennessee.
- Attorneys argued Howard was intellectually disabled and that Texas's lethal injection drugs, like Tennessee's, might be degraded, posing risks.
- Court appeals to block the execution based on these arguments were denied by state and federal courts.
- Howard apologized to Swartout's family, who witnessed the execution.
- The article also mentions the upcoming military execution of Nidal Hasan by firing squad.