Jamaal Howard, a 46-year-old American, was executed in Texas by lethal injection. This is the first execution since the repeatedly failed attempt to execute Christa Pike in Tennessee, just a week earlier. Howard, sentenced to death for killing a sales clerk during a robbery in 2000, was pronounced dead after administering a lethal dose of pentobarbital at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. His is the thirtieth execution in the United States in 2026. When the prison director asked him if he had a final statement to make, Howard apologized to some of the victim’s family, who were watching the execution through a glass window, a few meters from the death chamber.
«I hope for your forgiveness»
“I hope you accept my apologies and I hope for your forgiveness,” he said shortly before the lethal injection operations began. «I’m sorry about what happened. I hope that one day you can learn to forgive me,” he added, thanking friends and family and saying he loved them. He also said that he was «serene and ready to find peace and the Lord; I thank you all.” He concluded by saying: “Enjoy life and peace to you all.”