Killer who murdered a shop worker is set to be executed by lethal injection in Texas

DAILYMAIL.COM • 1d ago

By IMOGEN GARFINKEL – SENIOR FOREIGN NEWS REPORTER 10:48 07 Oct 2026, updated 10:56 07 Oct 2026

A Texas man who fatally shot a convenience store clerk is set to die by lethal injection on Wednesday in what would be the nation’s 30th execution this year.

Jamaal Howard, 46, was found guilty of capital murder in the 2000 killing of Vickie Swartout, 42, who was shot once in the chest.

He is set to receive a lethal dose of pentobarbital in the first scheduled execution in the US since Tennessee’s failed attempt at putting Christa Pike to death last week.

Pike’s attorneys said Tuesday that she was awake and speaking as she received treatment at a hospital.

Texas has executed six people so far this year, with two more scheduled after Howard.

Swartout was fatally shot during the robbery at the store in the small, rural town of Silsbee, located about 100 miles (161 kilometres) northeast of Houston.

Evidence presented at the trial included the store’s surveillance video, which showed Howard shooting Swartout.

Howard, who was 20 at the time, shot Swartout once in the chest with a handgun stolen from his grandfather, and took $114 as well as a carton of cigarettes from the store, according to court records.

His attorneys have argued that Howard is intellectually disabled and suffers with chronic schizophrenia, hallucinations and a traumatic brain injury from when he was shot in the head during a drive-by shooting at age 17.

They say his execution should be halted on those grounds.

The state said that he has not presented evidence that would show he meets the requirements for a claim of intellectual disability.

He has an appeal to the US Supreme Court pending to stop the execution.

The Supreme Court in 2002 had barred the execution of intellectually disabled people.

But it has given states some discretion in how they determine such disabilities.

Jeff Hood, Howard’s spiritual adviser, will be present in the execution chamber with him on Wednesday.

It comes as Howard’s attorneys have asked Greg Abbott, the Texas governor, for a 30-day reprieve.

They claimed the systematic drug failures that left Pike alive but in critical condition make Howard’s pending execution – also by lethal injection – both cruel and unsafe.

Hood told the Texas Observer that Howard had no idea what happened to Pike until he informed him about the failed injections.

Howard allegedly said: ‘I guess if the drugs don’t work, they’ll just shoot me in the head.’

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 is facing calls to abandon the execution of Pike after the convicted killer became conscious in the hospital after her botched execution.

The 50-year-old had to be hooked up to a ventilator when the state failed to execute her through lethal injection on September 30.

But nearly a week later, the killer’s attorneys said that she is reportedly ‘conscious, speaking, and continues to receive critical medical care’.

‘Despite the severe damage she endured to her arms, she is still handcuffed and shackled to the bed,’ the lawyer said.

‘Her recovery is medically unprecedented. Her prognosis remains unclear but, at a minimum, we expect a long recovery.’

Former prison governor Bill Lee, who oversaw Pike’s attempted execution and will step down from his role later this month, has yet to respond to repeated requests from Pike’s attorneys and death penalty objectors to commute her sentence to life in prison but reiterated his support for capital punishment.

‘My responsibility is to uphold the sentences that Tennessee juries have handed down, even when it’s difficult, and that is exactly what we intend to do in the days ahead,’ Lee said.

After announcing he was stepping down on Saturday, an interim is yet to be appointed.

Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Centre, described the rare circumstance of Pike’s case as ‘uncharted territory,’ to USA Today.

‘The US Supreme Court has not decided whether a second execution attempt would violate the constitution since 1947,’ she added.

‘These are questions that have never needed to be asked before and no one knows the answers.’

Pike was injected by at least seven needles as medical staff attempted to give her two lethal doses of pentobarbital that left her arms ‘swollen, burned, and blistered,’ her attorneys previously revealed.

According to a motion filed after the botched execution, ‘At one point, Ms Pike herself offered guidance on where the IV team could attempt access; one needle was bent at a 90-degree angle when it was removed’.

Her lawyers stated she was administered two sets of syringes of the lethal drug and could be heard crying, whimpering and breathing loudly throughout the process.

During the procedure, she said: ‘My arm feels like it’s about to burst open,’ and at another point, asked: ‘Does this happen like that?’

Tennessee’s execution protocol calls for a secondary set of drug syringes to be administered ‘if the inmate is not deceased’ after the first set.

It does not spell out what happens if the subject is alive after the second set.

Nearly 80 years earlier, the Supreme Court considered whether a state could execute an inmate for a second time after a failed execution in Louisiana.

Willie Francis was 17 years old when the state first attempted to execute him in the electric chair in 1946, but the device failed to deliver enough current.

After a year, the Supreme Court ruled in 1947 that the failed execution had been an accident and that a second attempt did not amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

He was successfully executed later that year.

However, legal experts argued Pike’s case falls under different circumstances because months before the execution her attorneys warned that officials could struggle to access her small veins.

Columbia Law School professor Bernard Harcourt told USA Today that a second attempt could ‘arguably violate double jeopardy’.

‘What’s interesting about that case is that the Supreme Court said it was an accident and, “You get to do it again,”‘ Harcourt said in reference to the Francis case.

‘Christa Pike wasn’t an accident. They knew.’

Pike’s attorneys said they believed problems with the IV lines caused the pentobarbital to flow into her body instead of her bloodstream.

‘Apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realise that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown and that the pentobarbital was, in whole or in part, entering Ms Pike’s body,’ the lawyers wrote in the court filing.

Instead of ‘remedying this failure,’ they prepared and administered a backup set of pentobarbital syringes, they wrote.

Maher told the outlet a second execution would ‘likely be unconstitutional’.

‘Of all the unknowns we have at the moment, the only thing I’m certain of is that she should not be subject to a second one,’ she added.

The governor ordered an independent investigation into Pike’s case and cancelled the only other remaining lethal injection for this year.

Her health update comes just days after Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada announced he would step down from his role later this month.

The former prison chief oversaw Pike’s attempted execution.

Strada said it was a ‘great honour’ to serve in his position and that he still ‘believes the Department carried out its responsibilities in accordance with the established protocol’.

‘Even so, stepping aside is in the best interest of Tennesseans as the independent review moves forward,’ he said.

Pike’s lawyers are seeking to have all evidence from her botched execution preserved so they can ensure accountability and protect her legal rights.

‘We are working closely with those closest to Christa to respect her wishes, safeguard her privacy and protect her rights as a patient during this extraordinarily difficult time,’ said Luke Ihnen, attorney for Pike with Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee.

‘We ask that the public and the media respect that privacy as well.’

Pike has been on death row for 30 years after she was convicted of the 1995 murder of her Knoxville Job Corps classmate Colleen Slemmer.

Pike’s boyfriend at the time, Tadaryl Shipp, helped lure the victim to a wooded area before the couple tortured her to death.

An accomplice, Shadolla Peterson, was on lookout as the pair carved a pentagram into the teen’s chest, police evidence showed.

Pike also took a piece of her skull as a souvenir, according to investigators.

Slemmer attempted to run for her life but the couple captured her again and continued the gruesome torture that lasted about 30 minutes to an hour, Pike estimated.

Pike and Shipp were both found guilty of first-degree murder.

She was sentenced to death, and he received a life sentence with the possibility of parole.

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