A Texas man convicted of fatally shooting a convenience store clerk during a robbery caught on surveillance video is set to be executed Wednesday, in what would be the nation’s 30th execution this year. Jamaal Howard, 46, faces a lethal dose of pentobarbital in Texas’s first execution since Tennessee’s failed attempt to put Christa Pike to death last week.
Howard was convicted of capital murder in the 2000 killing of Vickie Swartout, 42, who was shot once in the chest at the store where she worked. Prosecutors presented surveillance video at Howard’s trial showing him shooting Swartout. Howard, who was 20 at the time, then took $114 and a carton of cigarettes from the store.
Howard’s attorneys argue that he is intellectually disabled and therefore cannot legally be executed. The state has disputed that claim, arguing Howard has not presented evidence showing he meets the requirements for intellectual disability. Howard has an appeal pending before the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to halt his execution. The Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that executing people with intellectual disabilities violates the Constitution, although states retain some discretion in determining whether a person meets the legal standard for intellectual disability.
Texas has executed six people so far this year, with two more executions scheduled after Howard’s. Swartout was killed during a robbery at the convenience store in Silsbee, a small rural town about 100 miles northeast of Houston. Florida has carried out 16 executions so far this year, more than any other state. Lethal injection remains the primary execution method in most states that allow the death penalty.
