First execution of inmate since failed lethal injection of Christa Pike
Jamaal Howard was executed in Texas a week after the botched injection of Christa Pike (Picture: Texas Department of Criminal Justice)
A death row inmate has been executed in the US just days after Christa Pike’s botched lethal injection.
Jamaal Howard, 46, was put to death in a Texas prison on Wednesday, a week after Pike, 50, was injected in Tennessee with two doses of pentobarbital but survived.
Howard had been sentenced to death over shooting and killing store clerk Vickie Swartout during a robbery in 2000, when he was aged 20.
He was injected with the same chemical as Pike despite his lawyers’ attempts to stop the procedure with the state’s criminal appeals court, citing risks.
His attorneys also tried to plead his case with the US Supreme Court, saying the execution should be stopped due to his disability.
Howard has an IQ of 65, which is below the 70 limit for someone to be declared intellectually disabled.
Christa Pike spoke her first words a week after the failed lethal injections (Picture: via REUTERS)
He said the information did not ‘really register’ to his client.
Dr Hood said: ‘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.’
Despite the family’s insistence that Howard did not have the capacity to understand his crimes or the death sentence, the execution went ahead at 6pm Central Time in Texas.
The court was told that Howard’s attorneys did not show evidence that would prove he met the requirement for intellectual disability.
Two more executions have been scheduled in Texas this year.
Pike stunned the world as she survived the lethal injections but was taken to a hospital, where her recovery is still uncertain.
The convicted murderer spoke for the first time yesterday, according to her representatives, who revealed her first words.
Tennessee Republicans consider more execution options after Christa Pike lethal injection fails News By DAVID A. LIEB Some of Tennessee’s top Republicans said Monday they want to explore alternative ways of executing condemned prisoners after the failed execution of Christa Pike, which relied on a large dose of pentobarbital. U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the state’s Republican candidate for governor, said Pike’s unsuccessful execution…
Christa Pike’s failed execution and the imperative to abolish the death penalty News In 1995, when she was 18, the now 50-year-old Christa Pike and her boyfriend tortured and murdered her classmate, Colleen Slemmer. At the age of 20, she was sentenced to death. After decades of litigation and appeals, as is typical with death row cases, her lethal injection was finally scheduled…
Christa Pike is awake after failed execution as her attorneys head to court News NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Death row inmate Christa Pike has regained consciousness after Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute her by lethal injection last week, and her attorneys are set to head to court Wednesday to seek more information about what went wrong. Pike, 50, survived two doses of pentobarbital as…
Christa Pike is conscious and speaking after Tennessee failed execution, her attorneys say News By KIM CHANDLER, Associated Press Christa Pike, a Tennessee inmate who survived Tennessee’s attempt to execute her, is awake and speaking as she receives treatment at a hospital, her attorneys said Tuesday. “Against all odds, Christa Pike is conscious, speaking, and continues to receive critical medical care. Despite the severe…
First man to be executed after Christa Pike speaks out hours before he is given injection News Jamaal Howard (right) with his spiritual advisor Dr Jeff Hood (Picture: Courtesy of Rev Dr Jeff Hood) When Jamaal Howard was told what happened to Christa Pike, it did ‘not really register’. But the 46-year-old could be facing the same fate. He is the next person to be executed in…
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