TEXAS SET TO EXECUTE JAMAAL HOWARD FOR 2000 CLERK KILLING

Jamaal Howard is scheduled to be executed in Texas on Wednesday for the 2000 killing of convenience store clerk Vickie Swartout, who was shot once in the chest during a robbery in Silsbee, a town roughly 100 miles northeast of Houston. He is due to receive a lethal dose of pentobarbital, in what would be the 30th US execution this year and Texas's first since an attempt to execute Christa Pike in Tennessee last week failed. Howard has an appeal pending before the US Supreme Court seeking to halt his execution.

Prosecutors presented surveillance video at Howard's trial showing him shooting Swartout, before he took $114 and a carton of cigarettes from the store, according to court records. Howard's attorneys argue he is intellectually disabled and therefore cannot legally be executed; the state disputes this, saying he has not presented evidence meeting the legal standard. The US Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that executing people with intellectual disabilities is unconstitutional, though states retain some discretion in applying that standard. Texas has carried out six executions so far this year, with two more scheduled after Howard's.

Pike's attorneys said Tuesday that she was awake and speaking while receiving treatment in hospital, after an attempt to execute her in Tennessee last week failed following two doses of a lethal injection drug. Florida has carried out 16 executions so far this year, more than any other US state. Lethal injection remains the primary method of execution in most US states that retain the death penalty. Howard's case continues to turn on the outcome of his unresolved appeal to the Supreme Court.