Texas Executes Jamaal Howard in 2000 Clerk Killing as US Death Toll Reaches 30
Updated
Updated · CNN · Oct 8
Texas Executes Jamaal Howard in 2000 Clerk Killing as US Death Toll Reaches 30
3 articles · Updated · CNN · Oct 8
Summary
Jamaal Howard, 46, was pronounced dead at 8:03 p.m. in Huntsville after Texas administered pentobarbital, making him the 30th person executed in the US this year and Texas' sixth.
Supreme Court and Texas appeals judges let the execution proceed after Howard's lawyers argued he was intellectually disabled and faced risks tied to pentobarbital after Tennessee's failed Sept. 30 execution of Christa Pike.
Howard apologized to Vickie Swartout's family in his final statement; witnesses said he gasped, coughed and then stopped moving within about 30 seconds, though he was pronounced dead 19 minutes later.
Surveillance video helped convict Howard of fatally shooting Swartout, 42, during a 2000 robbery in Silsbee in which he took $114 and a carton of cigarettes.
Florida has carried out 16 executions this year, the most of any state, while Texas plans two more and Tennessee has halted its remaining 2026 execution.