Texas executes Jamaal Howard America’s first death row inmate since the failed Christa Pike lethal injection attempt
Death row inmate Jamaal Howard has been executed in Texas.
Howard has become the 30th person to be executed in the US this year and the first since Christa Pike’s failed attempt in Tennessee.
Howard, 46, was pronounced dead at 8.03pm local time after receiving a fatal dose of pentobarbital at the state prison in Huntsville.
He was sentenced to the death penalty for the 2000 murder of Vickie Swartout during an attempted robbery.
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Howard was said to be ‘chatty’ during the 45-minute journey from death row to the Huntsville Unit where executions are carried out.
Amanda Hernandez, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said: “He made small talk with the officers through the whole trip.”
Once inside, he was taken to a holding cell inside the death chamber.
“He was asking questions and was very engaged in the process,” Hernandez said.
Earlier today, his legal team had unsuccessfully tried to block the execution, claiming that Howard was intellectually disabled and raising concerns about the use of pentobarbital - the same drug that had been used in Pike’s execution attempt on 30 September.
A One filing from his team read: “Ms. Pike survived two lethal doses of pentobarbital, the same drug used in executions in Texas, and she reportedly remains hospitalised in critical condition.
“When an execution goes wrong, one of the first questions anyone asks is whether the drug was what the State said it was.
“Tennessee’s own officials cannot yet answer that, and the answer lies in records: when the drug was bought, from whom, how it was stored, and what testing was done and when. Texas should not wait until after a failed execution to ask the same questions.
“We do not know why Ms. Pike’s execution failed, and we, specifically, do not know whether the failure was due to the pentobarbital’s being ineffective.”
According to his spiritual advisor Reverend Jeff Hood, at trial, psychiatrists determined that Howard's IQ is in the the 65-70 range, while they described him as functioning at the level of an 11 or 12-year-old.
Writing in the Texas Observer ahead of the execution, Hood claimed that Howard ‘didn’t understand how executions were carried out’ and that he had not heard of the Pike case or the media storm surrounding it.
He said that when he told Howard that at Pike’s execution the drugs didn’t work, he matter-of-factly replied: “I guess if the drugs don’t work, they’ll just shoot me in the head.”
He said that he told Howard that executions didn’t work like that but claimed he ‘literally had no understanding of the protocol by which he was going to be executed or what would happen if something went wrong’.
Pike's legal team have confirmed that she is now 'conscious and speaking' following her botched execution attempt last month.
In a new update earlier today, her team said that she could remember her name but when asked the date she still believed it was September.
Dr Joel Zivot, the anaesthesiologist advising her team, shared more details on her condition.
"She has some memories of being in the hospital but no memory, I believe, of the execution attempt," he told the BBC.
Tennessee has paused all upcoming executions
In the wake of her execution attempt, Tennessee has announced that all further planned executions be halted until an investigation into the matter is carried out.
A statement issued by the Tennessee Department of Correction said that they 'followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office.'
"The Tennessee Department of Correction followed every step of the state’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office," the statement said.
"The lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective, and the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out this evening. Christa Pike has been transported to an off-site medical facility."
The incident also led to the resignation of Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada.
Strada will leave his role this month after being the residing commissioner of Tennessee's Department of Correction for the past three years, and also in the role when the May execution of Tony Carruthers, was called off due to problems finding a vein for his lethal injection.
Claire Reid