Man who wrapped ex-TCU professor’s head in 36 feet of duct tape is put to death
A man who wrapped the face of a 77-year-old retired TCU professor from her chin to her eyebrows with 14 layers of duct tape, leaving her to asphyxiate in the trunk of her car, was executed on Thursday night in the state’s death chamber at a prison in Huntsville.
Edward Busby, whose intellect, IQ and the possible resulting disability were the focus of the argument in his appeals, died when pentobarbital was injected into his body.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit last week stayed the execution.
The Texas attorney general’s office filed an emergency application to vacate the stay. The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday granted the application, clearing the way for the execution at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Huntsville Unit.
In January 2004, Busby suffocated Laura Lee Crane with 36 feet of two brands of tape, the pathologist who performed her autopsy testified at Busby’s capital murder trial in Tarrant County.
Busby kidnapped Crane from the parking lot of a Tom Thumb grocery store in Fort Worth.
He robbed Crane of money and credit cards before killing the retired TCU educator.
A jury in November 2005 found Busby guilty of capital murder and concluded that he should die.
Busby was the 600th person executed in Texas since the state resumed carrying out the punishment in 1982.
Busby led authorities to Crane’s body, which was wrapped in a motel sheet, in the woods off Interstate 35 near Ardmore, Oklahoma.
Busby’s co-defendant, Kathleen Latimer, pleaded guilty to murder and received a life sentence. Latimer, 61, will be eligible for parole in 2034, according to Texas prison records.
Busby’s defense attorneys, Jack Strickland and Steve Gordon, argued that Busby’s poor upbringing, low IQ, learning disabilities and chronic drug and alcohol use merited a life sentence.
Prosecutors Greg Miller and Joe Shannon argued that Busby was a thief, pimp and drug dealer who was not as mentally deficient as the defense suggested and that he deserved to die for his crime.
Judge Wayne Salvant presided at the trial.
Judge William Knight, who currently presides in Criminal District Court No. 2 in Tarrant County, in December signed an order, sought by the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office, directing the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to execute Busby on May 14.
Crane retired as director of TCU’s Starpoint School, which serves students with learning difficulties.
Busby was originally scheduled to be executed in February 2021. He was granted a stay while an appeals court reviewed his claim that he had an intellectual disability.
