A Texas man convicted of killing a store clerk has become the first inmate executed since Christa Pike survived a botched lethal injection attempt.
Jamaal Howard, 46, was pronounced dead Wednesday evening at the Huntsville Unit in Texas after receiving a lethal dose of the same drug that failed to kill Pike on September 30. His execution proceeded despite legal efforts to halt it.
Howard was convicted of the fatal shooting of a store clerk, a crime that placed him on death row in Texas. The state has carried out more executions than any other since the death penalty was reinstated nationally in 1976.
Pike, 49, became the first woman to face execution in Tennessee in nearly two centuries when prison officials strapped her to a gurney last month. The lethal injection protocol failed, and she was returned to death row alive. The incident marked the third time in U.S. History that a prisoner survived a lethal injection attempt.
Lawyers for Howard had sought to block his execution, citing the Pike case and arguing that the same drug carried what they called a “similar risk.” Courts rejected that argument, clearing the way for Wednesday’s procedure.
The Pike failure has intensified scrutiny of lethal injection protocols nationwide. Tennessee officials have not publicly explained what went wrong during Pike’s procedure, though the state has faced repeated legal challenges to its execution methods.
Howard’s execution breaks a brief pause in U.S. Lethal injections that followed the Pike incident. No other executions had been scheduled or carried out in the intervening weeks, making him the first inmate put to death since the botched attempt.
The drug at issue in both cases has been used in hundreds of executions across multiple states. Pharmaceutical companies have repeatedly sought to block its use in lethal injections, arguing that states obtained it through improper channels.
Pike remains on death row in Tennessee awaiting a new execution date. She was convicted of the 1995 torture and murder of a fellow Job Corps student, Colleen Slemmer, in Knoxville. Her case has drawn international attention both for the brutality of the crime and for her status as one of the youngest women ever sentenced to death in the United States.
Howard’s case drew far less public attention before Wednesday. Texas officials proceeded with the execution after the courts declined to intervene, marking the state’s continued adherence to capital punishment even as other states have moved away from the practice.
The Federal Aviation Administration has launched a separate investigation into a fatal crash, officials said, though that probe appears unrelated to the execution cases. Authorities acknowledged they lack complete information from Russian counterparts regarding that incident.
Howard’s execution is scheduled to be followed by additional lethal injections in Texas in the coming weeks, though specific dates have not been finalized.