The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a stay of execution for Texas death row inmate Edward Busby on Thursday, clearing the way for his execution tonight amid concerns of his ineligibility due to intellectual disability.
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The court’s order comes almost a week after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals halted Busby’s execution after defense lawyers argued that Busby is intellectually disabled, making him ineligible for capital punishment, and was denied funding to prove it.
Busby was sentenced to death in 2005 in the deadly robbery and kidnapping of 78-year-old Laura Crane, suffocating her by wrapping her face with tape. His execution had been halted twice before: in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, and again in 2021 by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to review a separate intellectual disability claim.
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Busby’s execution would be Texas’ 600th since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstituted the death penalty in 1976. Texas accounts for roughly 36% of the country’s executions in the time since, more than the next four states combined, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
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