Supreme Court clears way for Texas to carry out 600th execution since 1982

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A North Texas man who experts for both prosecutors and defense attorneys have said is intellectually disabled faced execution Thursday evening for the death of a retired college professor after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a stay that had put it on hold.

If Edward Busby receives a lethal injection as scheduled, he would be the 600th person executed in Texas since the state resumed carrying out the death penalty in 1982.

Busby’s execution had been in doubt after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week had issued a stay to further review his claims of intellectual disability. But the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the stay on Thursday at the request of the Texas Attorney General’s Office. Three of the nine justices on the high court would have allowed the stay to remain.

The Supreme Court in 2002 barred the execution of intellectually disabled people. But it has given states some discretion to decide how to determine such disabilities.

Busby was scheduled to receive a lethal injection after 6 p.m. CDT at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He was condemned for the January 2004 suffocation death of Laura Lee Crane, a 77-year-old retired professor from Texas Christian University.

His attorneys have argued Busby is barred from being put to death because a defense expert as well as one hired by the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted the case, have both found he is intellectually disabled.

The district attorney’s office had recommended that Busby’s sentence be reduced to life in prison. But the trial judge in Busby’s case disagreed with the findings of intellectual disability and in 2023 upheld the death sentence.

In a statement Wednesday, the district attorney’s office said it requested Thursday’s execution date because “under current case law, we believe Mr. Busby is not intellectually disabled. We agree with the Texas Attorney General’s handling of the case.”

In December, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case out of Alabama that could change how courts may consider the cumulative effect of multiple IQ scores in assessing intellectual disability.

The Texas Attorney General’s Office had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to lift the stay, arguing Busby’s claims of intellectual disability are “meritless” and based on “conflicting evidence.” The attorney general’s office is also arguing that Busby’s claims of intellectual disability should not be reviewed because they are “time barred” and previous similar appeals have been rejected.

“Busby has litigated his (intellectual disability) claim many times over. He was not entitled to another bite at the apple,” the attorney general’s office said.

In a concurring opinion that had temporarily blocked the execution, 5th Circuit Judge James Graves Jr. said “the medical community’s consensus here is that Busby is intellectually disabled and ineligible for execution.”

Two other prior execution dates for Busby had been delayed by courts.

Abraham Bonowitz, executive director of Death Penalty Action, a national anti-death penalty group, criticized the attorney’s general’s efforts to have the execution go forward without a review of the merits of Busby’s intellectual disability claims.

“The merits of this case are significant,” Bonowitz said. “How can anyone claim this is fair due process?”

Prosecutors have said Busby and his co-defendant, Kathleen Latimer, abducted Crane in her car from a Fort Worth grocery store parking lot and later put in her vehicle’s trunk as they drove around. Prosecutors said she died in the trunk after suffocating from having 23 feet (7 meters) of duct tape wrapped over her entire face, covering her mouth and nose.

Busby was arrested in Oklahoma City driving Crane’s car and led authorities to her body in Oklahoma just north of the Texas border.

After his arrest, Busby told investigators Latimer was the person who had pushed him to abduct Crane, restrain her with the tape and that he “never meant for her to get hurt or anything.” Latimer remains in prison after receiving a life sentence for murder.

If the execution is carried out, Busby would be the fourth person put to death this year in Texas and the 12th in the country. Texas has historically held more executions than any other state.

Earlier Thursday, Oklahoma executed Raymond Johnson for killing his ex-girlfriend and her 7-month-old daughter nearly 20 years ago.

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Lozano reported from Houston. Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://x.com/juanlozano70