New Delhi, Oct. 8 -- A Texas man was put to death Wednesday evening, becoming the 30th person executed in the US this year and the first since Tennessee's failed attempt to administer a lethal injection to Christa Pike a week ago.

Jamaal Howard was pronounced dead at 8:03 pm after receiving a fatal dose of pentobarbital at the state prison in Huntsville, the Associated Press reported.

Jamaal Howard, 46, was convicted of killing Vickie Swartout, 42, in a 2000 store robbery. The store clerk's killing was caught on surveillance video.

Howard, who was 20 at the time, took $114 and a carton of cigarettes from the store in Silsbee, a small, rural town about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northeast of Houston, according to court records cited by ...