A Texas court on Wednesday refused 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 Texas execution was scheduled to take place later Wednesday and would be the first in the U.S. since Pike survived the attempted execution 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 request for a stay and later denied a second attempt to stop the execution over the drug. The court denied both without elaboration. The U.S. Supreme Court also denied a late appeal Wednesday evening without comment.

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. They said she was unconscious at a hospital after the attempt 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 earlier filing.

Texas has executed six people so far this year, with two more lethal injections scheduled after Howard. He would become the 30th person executed nationwide in 2026.

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Inmate remained  chatty' on drive to the death chamber

On Wednesday, Howard was described as  chatty  during the 45-mile (70-kilometer) drive from the death row prison to the Huntsville Unit where executions are carried out, said Amanda Hernandez, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

 He made small talk with the officers through the whole trip,  she said, adding he was taken to a small holding cell near the death chamber where he remained talkative.

 He was asking questions and was very engaged in the process,  Hernandez said.

Store clerk's ki

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