Texas court denies request to stop man’s execution over Christa Pike’s failed lethal injection

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A Texas court refused Wednesday to halt the execution of a man who fatally shot a convenience store clerk after his attorneys cited the failed lethal injection of Christa Pike in Tennessee.

The execution was scheduled to take place later Wednesday in Texas and would be the first in the U.S. since Pike survived the execution attempt last week.

Because Texas planned to inject the same drug used in Pike’s attempted execution — pentobarbital — attorneys for 46-year-old Jamaal Howard argued to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that the drug poses similar risks. They also raised concerns about the quality of the state’s execution drugs.

The court denied the stay request without elaboration.

Pike’s lawyers are seeking more information about what went wrong after the 50-year-old woman survived two doses of pentobarbital on Sept. 30. She was unconscious for several days at a hospital but was awake and speaking by Tuesday.

“Texas should not be eager to follow in Tennessee’s footsteps; a stay would keep that from happening,” Howard’s attorneys argued in their filing.

Texas has executed six people so far this year, with two more lethal injections scheduled after Howard. He would become the 30th…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/health