Jamaal Howard is set to die on Wednesday in Huntsville, and his execution now sits under the shadow of a botched execution in Tennessee that has made this the first scheduled U.S. execution since that event. Howard, who is close to the writer and will be seen in the execution chamber, has already said what he thinks might happen if the lethal injection drugs do not work.
He put it plainly: “I guess if the drugs don’t work, they’ll just shoot me in the head.” That fear is part of what makes his case land so hard today, because Texas does not permit execution by firing squad. His belief that one method could turn into another is not just wrong; it shows how little he understands about the process he is facing.
That misunderstanding matters because Howard has mental health problems and intellectual disabilities, and the writer says Howard did not understand how executions were carried out when it was explained to him. On Wednesday, the state plans to carry out the execution in Huntsville, and the timing gives the case a different weight after the botched execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee. The two events are linked by more than the calendar: both raise the same hard question about what it means to move ahead when a condemned man cannot fully grasp what is about to happen.
Howard was 20 when he killed Vickie Swartout during a robbery in Hardin County. That fact is not in dispute, and it is the reason he is now facing death. But the line between punishment and procedure has become the thing readers are likely to fix on, because the state is preparing to proceed while Howard appears to believe there may be another outcome if the drugs fail.
There is no sign that Texas plans to use a firing squad if the drugs do not work, and that leaves the execution to the method already set for Wednesday. For Howard, the day ahead is not an abstract legal date. It is the moment he has been trying to understand, and the moment everyone around him already knows is coming.
