Texas man who experts said was intellectually disabled is executed for retired professor’s killing

A man who experts for both prosecutors and defense attorneys had said was intellectually disabled became the 600th person executed in Texas since 1982 for the killing of a retired 77-year-old college professor.

Edward Busby Jr. was pronounced dead at 8.11pm local time Thursday following a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, hours after a divided Supreme Court lifted a stay over his disability claims. The execution followed a series of last-minute legal efforts by Busby's attorneys in a bid to spare his life after the nation’s high court lifted a stay hours earlier.

Busby was condemned for the suffocation death of Laura Lee Crane, a 77-year-old retired professor from Texas Christian University who prosecutors say was abducted from a grocery store parking lot in January 2004 and left to suffocate in the trunk of her car with duct tape wrapped around her face.

The execution was the 600th 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 issued a stay of execution to further review his claims of intellectual disability. But the Supreme Court allowed the execution to proceed after overturning the stay Thursday at the request of the Texas Attorney General’s Office. Later Thursday evening, Busby’s lawyers again asked the 5th Circuit for an 11th-hour stay but were quickly denied.

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.

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Busby's attorneys had argued against his 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, both found he was intellectually disabled.

The district attorney’s office had previously 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 it believed that under current law, Busby was not intellectually disabled.

The Texas Attorney General’s Office had urged the 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 also argued that Busby’s claims of intellectual disability merited no further review because they were “time-barred” and similar appeals were previously rejected.

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

Abraham Bonowitz, executive director of Death Penalty Action, a national anti-death penalty group, criticised the attorney general for pressing for the execution to be carried out without a review of the merits of Busby's intellectual disability claims.

“The merits of this case are significant,” Bonowitz said before the execution was carried out. “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 her 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.

Busby was 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.