A 46-year-old man named Jamaal Howard was put to death by lethal injection in Texas this past Wednesday. Howard had been on death row for his role in the 2000 murder of a convenience store clerk during a robbery. This event marks the 30th time an execution has been carried out in the United States within the current calendar year.

The timing of this incident is particularly notable, as it comes only one week after Tennessee made headlines for a failed attempt to execute Christa Pike. Following that widely reported botched procedure, Howard’s execution serves as the first to be successfully completed in the country since that controversy occurred.