Texas To Execute Clerk Killer

Texas planned to execute Jamaal Howard by lethal injection on Oct. 7, the first scheduled U.S. execution since Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute Christa Pike the previous week. Howard was convicted of capital murder for killing convenience-store clerk Vickie Swartout during a 2000 robbery in Silsbee, Texas. The Supreme Court bars executions of intellectually disabled people, and Howard has an appeal pending there. His attorneys say he is intellectually disabled and sought a 30-day reprieve from Gov. Greg Abbott, citing concerns about pentobarbital. The state says Howard has not met the evidence requirements for that claim. That failure followed another botched Tennessee execution in May, bringing injection procedures under scrutiny. His execution was scheduled for 6 p.m. Central at the Huntsville Unit.