Gizem Nisa Demir<\/p>\n
08 October 2026\u2022Update: 08 October 2026<\/p>\n
Texas executed Jamaal Howard, 46, on Wednesday evening for the 2000 killing of convenience store clerk Vickie Swartout, 42, making him the 30th person executed in the US this year, according to American media.<\/p>\n
Howard was pronounced dead at 8.03 pm (0103GMT Thursday) after receiving a lethal dose of pentobarbital at the state prison in Huntsville, NBC News reported.<\/p>\n
He was convicted of capital murder after surveillance video showed him shooting Swartout once in the chest during a robbery at a store in Silsbee, about 100 miles (161 kilometers) northeast of Houston. Howard, who was 20 at the time, stole $114 and carton of cigarettes.<\/p>\n
Before the execution, Howard apologized to members of Swartout\u2019s family who witnessed it. \u201cI wish that you accept my apology and I wish for your forgiveness,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m sorry for what happened. I wish you can learn to forgive me one of these days.\u201d He also thanked his family and friends, saying he was \u201cin a good state of mind to find peace and the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n
Howard\u2019s attorneys unsuccessfully asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and the US Supreme Court to halt the execution, arguing that he was intellectually disabled and raising concerns about the state\u2019s execution drugs. The Supreme Court declined to intervene late Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Howard\u2019s execution was the first in the US since Tennessee\u2019s failed attempt to execute Christa Pike on Sept. 30, when she survived two doses of pentobarbital. Texas has carried out seven executions this year and has two more scheduled, while Florida leads the nation with 16.<\/p>\n
Amanda Hernandez, a Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesperson, said Howard remained \u201cchatty\u201d during the 45-mile trip to the Huntsville execution facility, where he \u201cmade small talk with the officers through the whole trip.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has halted the state\u2019s only remaining scheduled execution this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gizem Nisa Demir 08 October 2026\u2022Update: 08 October 2026 Texas executed Jamaal Howard, 46, on Wednesday evening for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[108312,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-459929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-sitekeywords","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459929","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=459929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}