Texas Executes Edward Busby As Supreme Court Lifts Disability Stay
Texas executed Edward Busby Jr. by lethal injection in Huntsville on Thursday, May 14, 2026, after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a stay tied to his intellectual-disability claims.[1]
He was pronounced dead at 8:11 p.m. Central after the injection, prison officials said.[1] The Supreme Court on Thursday lifted a 5th Circuit stay that had been granted to review those claims, and three justices dissented.[1]
Busby was convicted in the January 2004 abduction and suffocation killing of 77-year-old retired Texas Christian University professor Laura Lee Crane.[1] Experts for both the prosecution and defense had found Busby intellectually disabled, and the Tarrant County district attorney had recommended a life sentence, but a trial judge upheld the death sentence in 2023.[1]
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📌 Key Facts
- Edward Busby Jr. was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas, on Thursday, May 14, 2026, and pronounced dead at 8:11 p.m. local time.
- The U.S. Supreme Court that day lifted a 5th Circuit stay that had been granted to review Busby's intellectual-disability claims, with three justices dissenting.
- Busby was convicted of the January 2004 abduction and suffocation killing of 77-year-old retired TCU professor Laura Lee Crane.
- Experts for both the prosecution and defense had found Busby intellectually disabled, and the Tarrant County district attorney had recommended a life sentence, but a trial judge upheld the death sentence in 2023.
- Busby became the 600th person executed in Texas since executions resumed in 1982.
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