Texas is scheduled to execute 46-year-old Jamaal Howard by lethal injection on Oct. 7, 2026. The execution comes as legal teams nationwide scrutinize the use of pentobarbital following two botched executions in Tennessee, including the recent survival of Christa Pike.
Jamaal Howard Faces Lethal Injection
Texas prepared to carry out the first execution in the United States since Tennessee’s botched lethal injection of Christa Pike. State officials scheduled Jamaal Howard to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. If carried out, the execution would mark the seventh person put to death in Texas in 2026 and the 30th nationwide.
Howard was convicted of capital murder for the May 12, 2000, killing of 42-year-old Vickie Swartout. Swartout was working alone as a clerk at a Chevron gas station in Silsbee, located about 100 miles northeast of Houston, when 20-year-old Howard walked inside.
Following the shooting, Howard fled the scene, and Swartout died within minutes.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, Texas has carried out all of its executions using lethal injection, specifically relying on pentobarbital. Because drug manufacturers refuse to sell the substance for use in executions, Texas utilizes pentobarbital compounded by pharmacies.
Male death row inmates in Texas are housed in single cells with windows at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston. Across the state, the total number of inmates awaiting execution stands at 162, a group that includes seven women housed at the O’Daniel Unit in Gatesville.
Attorneys Cite Tennessee Execution Debacle in Last-Minute Appeals
Howard’s legal team launched a series of urgent appeals to halt the execution, pointing directly to the failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee on September 30. Pike was originally set to be executed for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Her attorneys had previously warned that her preexisting medical conditions, including a blood disorder and small veins, could complicate the procedure. During the attempt, executioners struggled to find a vein, leaving her arms burned and blistered. Officials allegedly failed to establish a second required IV line or place a central line, resulting in blown veins where needles pierced completely through and caused pentobarbital to pool in surrounding muscle and interstitial tissue rather than entering her bloodstream.
In the wake of Pike’s ordeal—marking the second failed execution attempt in Tennessee in less than four months, following the case of Carruthers—Tennessee Republican Governor Bill Lee canceled the state’s remaining execution scheduled for December and ordered a comprehensive third-party investigation into what went wrong. Meanwhile, because Texas uses the same lethal drug, Howard’s attorneys argued that the state’s supply shares the same risks of degradation, noting the drugs are far past the original beyond-use dates allowed by the pharmacopeia. They sent a letter to Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott asking for a 30-day reprieve to inspect records about when the pentobarbital was purchased, how it was stored, and what testing it has undergone.
“We do not ask you to decide anything about Mr. Howard’s case other than this: that he should not be executed with a drug whose history the State has refused to let his lawyers see, within days of the same drug failing in another state.”
Howard’s lawyers, via San Angelo LIVE!
Attorneys also filed a motion in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stating that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice had sought an attorney general opinion to avoid disclosing details about its pentobarbital supply. The legal team argued that because the ruling would not arrive until after the scheduled execution, they were blocked from litigating the issue.
Dispute Over Intellectual Disability and Comprehension of Death
The U.S. Supreme Court barred the execution of intellectually disabled individuals in 2002 while granting states discretion in determining such disabilities. Prior to Howard’s trial, the court held two competency hearings at the state’s request. The jury deadlocked during the first hearing and ruled him fit during the second after Howard’s attorney did not call their expert witness. While the state maintained Howard presented no evidence meeting statutory requirements, his attorneys continued pursuing a pending appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court.
“When you talk about the lethal injection drugs, he thinks you are talking about drugs that would get you high or something. He really has no idea it will end his life.”
Dr. Jeff Hood, spiritual advisor to Howard, via Metro
State Courts Decline to Intervene as Victims’ Families Await Resolution
In filings before the courts, officials maintained that justice for the victim’s family should not be delayed further after more than 25 years on death row. Following Howard, the next scheduled man to face execution in Texas is John Rubio, who was convicted of the 2003 murders of his three children.