Texas is scheduled to carry out the first execution in the United States since the controversial, botched lethal injection of Christa Pike in Tennessee last week.
Attorneys for Jamaal Howard, a Texas death row inmate convicted of capital murder, have sought to halt the execution, arguing before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that the risks of a botched procedure mirror those in Pike’s case. However, the court denied the initial request for a stay, followed by a second emergency motion to block the execution due to concerns over the lethal injection drug. Both denials were issued without elaboration. Late Wednesday evening, the United States Supreme Court also declined to hear an emergency appeal without comment.
Howard, aged 46, was convicted of capital murder in 2001 for robbing a convenience store in Silsbee, a town north of Beaumont, during which he fatally shot 42-year-old clerk Vickie Swartout.
In addition to the drug concerns, Howard’s legal team has argued that he was intellectually disabled at the time of the crime, which would render him ineligible for the death penalty under a 2002 Supreme Court ruling.
During her execution, Pike survived two doses of the barbiturate pentobarbital—the very same sedative that Texas officials plan to administer to Howard. Pike had reportedly complained that her arms felt as though they were exploding as the drug was being administered.
She regained consciousness on Tuesday, though her legal team reports she is currently battling pneumonia and is unable to move her arms.
Pike’s execution was the second botched lethal injection in Tennessee this year. In response, Governor Bill Lee has banned all further lethal injections for the remainder of the year and ordered an official investigation into the failure. Pike’s attorneys had previously argued that her underlying blood disorder would make a lethal injection excruciatingly painful, and questions have since arisen regarding the quality and expiration of the pentobarbital used.
“There is a similar risk,” Howard’s attorneys wrote in a Wednesday motion filed with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, “that Texas’s execution drugs are likewise degraded, as they are far past the original beyond-use dates that the pharmacopeia allows for drugs of this kind.”
The motion noted that Howard’s legal team had filed formal requests for information regarding the specific lethal dose of pentobarbital that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice planned to utilize.
Because the Texas Attorney General’s opinion is not expected until after the scheduled execution date, Howard’s team argues they will be unable to litigate any decisions regarding the release of drug information in time.
Last week, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals also declined an emergency request to halt Howard’s execution.
Texas prison officials did not immediately return requests for comment on Wednesday morning.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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