A Texas court refused Wednesday to halt the execution of a man who fatally shot a convenience store worker after his lawyers cited the failed lethal injection of Christa Pike in Tennessee to try to stop the proceedings.
The execution was scheduled to take place later Wednesday in Texas and would be the first in the United States since Pike survived last week’s attempted execution.
Because Texas planned to inject the same drug used in the attempted execution of Pike… pentobarbital — Lawyers for Jamaal Howard, 46, argued to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that the drug poses similar risks. They also expressed concerns about the quality of execution drugs provided by the state.
The court rejected the request for a stay without further details.
“Texas should not be eager to follow in Tennessee’s footsteps; a stay would prevent that from happening,” Howard’s lawyers argued in their filing.
Pike’s lawyers were seeking more information about what went wrong after the 50-year-old survived two doses of pentobarbital. She was hospitalized and on Tuesday she was awake and talking.
In a statement Tuesday, her attorneys said she is “conscious, talking and continues to receive critical medical care” but noted that “her prognosis remains uncertain” and “at a minimum” they “expect a long recovery.”
They also stated that “despite the severe damage to her arms, she is still handcuffed and chained to the bed.”
One of his lawyers, Steve Ferrell, told “CBS Mornings” Monday that doctors were working to rid her body of pentobarbital and she was on a ventilator.
His lawyers alleged his execution was marred by blown veins, where a needle goes completely through a vein and causes blood and fluid to leak, as well as by the deterioration of Tennessee’s pentobarbital and a lack of emergency medical care.
“There is a similar risk,” Howard’s attorneys wrote, “that Texas execution drugs will also be degraded because they are well past the original expiration dates allowed by the pharmacopoeia for these types of drugs.”
Texas has executed six people so far this year, with two more planned after Howard, which would be the 30th execution nationwide in 2026.
Murder caught on surveillance video
Howard was convicted of capital murder in the 2000 killing of Vickie Swartout, 42, who was shot in the chest during a robbery. Evidence presented at trial included the store’s surveillance video, which showed Howard shooting Swartout.
Howard, who was 20 at the time, took $114 and a carton of cigarettes from a store in the small rural town of Silsbee, located about 100 miles northeast of Houston, according to court records.
His lawyers argued that Howard was mentally disabled and his execution should be halted. The state said he failed to present evidence showing he qualified for a claim of intellectual disability.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice via AP 
He filed an appeal to the United States Supreme Court to stop his execution.
In 2002, the Supreme Court banned the execution of people with intellectual disabilities. But it gave states some leeway in how they determine these disabilities.
Motion to stay because of drugs
The motion filed Wednesday with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals says Howard’s attorneys have filed requests for information about the lethal dose of pentobarbital the Texas Department of Criminal Justice plans to use. They claim the department sought advice from the state attorney general on whether to release this information, despite a “years-long practice of disclosing information.”
The Texas attorney general’s opinion isn’t expected until Wednesday, meaning Howard can’t challenge any decision the state might make regarding releasing that information, they say.
Texas officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday morning.
Executions in the United States this year
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 Republican Governor Bill Lee interrupted the only remaining execution for the rest of the year.
An execution date for the former Army Major Nidal Hasanthat killed 13 people in a shooting at Fort Hood in 2009, is scheduled for Dec. 3 and will take place at the same post where he carried out his attack, according to an email sent to the victims’ families.
Hasan is ready to die by firing squad in what will be the first military execution since 1961. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Monday evening that the plan to use an army firing squad was recommended by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and approved by President Trump.
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