Texas carries out first US execution since Christa Pike's botched lethal injections
Lawyers for Jamaal Howard had asked a judge to pause the execution after Christa Pike's botched lethal injections.
Texas carries out first US execution since Christa Pike's botched lethal injections
A death row inmate was put to death by lethal injection on Wednesday evening in Texas, marking the first execution in the US since the failed attempt to execute Christa Pike last week.
Lawyers for 46-year-old Jamaal Howard had asked a judge to halt the execution in light of Pike's botched injections last week, according to the BBC's US partner, CBS News.
However, the courts rejected their requests, and he was given a fatal dose of pentobarbital at the state prison in Huntsville. He was pronounced dead at 20:03 local time.
Howard had been convicted and sentenced to death for the 2000 killing of a convenience store clerk during a robbery he carried out.
His lawyers argued that because Texas planned to inject Howard with the same drug - pentobarbital - that was used on Pike, he faced the same risks. They also claimed that Texas' supply of the drug had deteriorated, as Pike's lawyers have also argued.
A court rejected their appeals twice, and the US Supreme Court also denied the appeal late Wednesday.
"Texas should not be eager to follow in Tennessee's footsteps; a stay would keep that from happening," Howard's attorneys had argued, CBS reported.
Howard's attorneys also asked Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, to postpone the execution by 30 days so they could seek more information about the drug used in the execution. The governor did not approve the delay.
Howard was 20 when he shot Vickie Swartout, 42, who was working at a convenience store in Texas. Howard took a carton of cigarettes and $114 from the register.
When asked whether he had a final statement before his execution, Howard apologized to Swartout's family, who watched from a witness room, US media report.
"I wish that you accept my apology, and I wish for your forgiveness," Howard said. "I'm sorry for what happened. I wish you can learn to forgive me one of these days."