{"id":458907,"date":"2026-10-07T09:04:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T09:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/458907\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T09:04:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T09:04:07","slug":"texas-set-to-execute-jamaal-howard-first-lethal-injection-execution-since-christa-pike-botch-attempt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/458907\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas set to execute Jamaal Howard first lethal injection execution since Christa Pike botch attempt"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Texas man who fatally shot a convenience store clerk is set to die by lethal injection on Wednesday in what would be the nation\u2019s 30th execution this year.<\/a><\/p>\n

Jamaal Howard, 46, was found guilty of capital murder in the 2000 killing of Vickie Swartout, 42, who was shot once in the chest.<\/p>\n

He is set to receive a lethal dose of pentobarbital in the first scheduled execution in the US since Tennessee\u2019s failed attempt at putting Christa Pike<\/a> to death last week.<\/p>\n

Jamaal Howard is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in Texas on Oct. 7, 2026. Texas Department of Criminal Justice via AP<\/p>\n

Pike\u2019s attorneys said Tuesday that she was awake and speaking<\/a> as she received treatment at a hospital.<\/p>\n

Texas has executed six people so far this year, with two more scheduled after Howard.<\/p>\n

A killing caught on surveillance<\/p>\n

Swartout was fatally shot during the robbery at the store in the small, rural town of Silsbee, located about 100 miles northeast of Houston.<\/p>\n

Evidence presented at the trial included the store\u2019s surveillance video, which showed Howard shooting Swartout.<\/p>\n

Jamaal Howard, 46, was found guilty of capital murder in the 2000 killing of Vickie Swartout, 42, who was shot once in the chest. Texas Department of Criminal Justice\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Vickie Swartout was fatally shot during the robbery at the store in the small, rural town of Silsbee, located about 100 miles northeast of Houston. KFDM\/YouTube<\/p>\n

Howard, who was 20 at the time, took $114 and a carton of cigarettes from the store, according to court records.<\/p>\n

His attorneys have argued that Howard is intellectually disabled and his execution should be halted.<\/p>\n

The state said that he has not presented evidence that would show he meets the requirements for a claim of intellectual disability.<\/p>\n

He has an appeal to the US Supreme Court pending to stop the execution.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court in 2002 had barred the execution of intellectually disabled people.<\/p>\n

But it has given states some discretion in how they determine such disabilities.<\/p>\n

Executions in the US this year<\/p>\n

Florida has carried out 16 executions so far this year, the most of any state.<\/p>\n

Most states that allow executions use lethal injection as their primary method.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Texas man who fatally shot a convenience store clerk is set to die by lethal injection on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[157074,59384,42226,14551,27,29,28,734],"class_list":["post-458907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-christa-pike","tag-death-row","tag-executions","tag-murders","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}