The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a stay for Texas death row inmate Edward Busby, clearing his execution tonight amid concerns over intellectual disability eligibility.
The U.S. Supreme Court moved to end a last-ditch effort to stop a Texas execution, clearing the way for death row inmate Edward Busby to be put to death tonight even as his lawyers argue he is ineligible due to intellectual disability.
In a brief order issued Thursday, the court struck down a stay that had paused Busby’s punishment.. The decision follows nearly a week after the 5th U.S.. Circuit Court of Appeals halted the execution. accepting arguments from defense attorneys that Busby’s intellectual disability should bar him from capital punishment.
Three of the Supreme Court’s liberal justices opposed the move.. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson filed a two-page dissent in which she criticized the court for what she described as an unwillingness to countenance even a short delay in a case where. she said. the threat to life warranted more careful review.
“In capital cases, we rarely intervene to preserve life,” Jackson wrote, joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor. “I cannot understand the Court’s rush to extinguish it, much less in the circumstances of this case.”
Justice Elena Kagan also would have kept the stay in place, according to the order.
Busby was sentenced to death in 2005 for the deadly robbery and kidnapping of 78-year-old Laura Crane. Prosecutors said he suffocated Crane after wrapping her face with tape.
His execution has already been delayed more than once. In 2020, it was halted due to the coronavirus pandemic. In 2021, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals put the case on hold again while it reviewed a separate claim relating to intellectual disability.
If Busby is executed tonight, it would mark Texas’ 600th execution since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstituted the death penalty in 1976. Texas accounts for roughly 36% of executions carried out in that period, more than the next four states combined, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Edward Busby Supreme Court Texas execution intellectual disability death penalty Ketanji Brown Jackson Laura Crane kidnapping