A Texas court has denied a request to halt the scheduled execution of Jamaal Howard, 46, who is set to be put to death Wednesday for the 2000 robbery shooting death of convenience store clerk Vickie Swartout in Silsbee. Howard’s legal team says the case deserves a pause, and the appeal is now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The centerpiece of the defense argument is a failed execution in Tennessee last week. Christa Pike, 50, received two doses of pentobarbital, the same drug Texas plans to use, and survived both. She remains hospitalized and speaking. Howard’s attorneys say that raises a similar risk that Texas’s supply is likewise degraded, since it is far past the original beyond-use dates the pharmacopeia allows for drugs of this kind. They also argue the state has withheld information about how its execution drugs are sourced and stored. Texas disputes their claims.

Howard’s team also argues he is intellectually disabled, which Texas contests. Texas has carried out six executions in 2026, and this would be the seventh, as well as the first in the nation since Pike’s execution. What questions do you want answered before this moves forward?