Texas carried out its 600th execution on May 14, when Edward Busby Jr. was put to death for the killing of a 77-year-old retired college professor. Before he died, he shared his final words.
Busby was pronounced dead at 8:11 p.m. following a lethal injection on May 14. His execution marked the 600th execution carried out in Texas since capital punishment resumed nearly 50 years ago.
Busby was convicted of the 2005 murder of Laura Lee Crane.
According to NBC News, Tarrant County prosecutors said Busby and an accomplice abducted the 77-year-old outside a grocery store before robbing her and suffocating her with 14 layers of duct tape wrapped around her face.
In the days leading up to his execution, Busby’s legal team made a series of last-minute attempts to stop it, arguing that new testing showed he had an intellectual disability, according to AP.
Death row inmate Edward Busby Jr.’s last words
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily delayed the execution while reviewing those claims. However, the Texas Attorney General’s Office argued that Busby’s claims lacked merit and that he did not meet the legal standard for intellectual disability. The U.S. Supreme Court later lifted the stay, allowing the execution to proceed.
According to NBC 5 DFW, Busby took a sharp breath, closed his eyes and gasped as he was given the lethal injection. He then reportedly made a “snoring sound” before growing quieter and eventually stopping all movement and sound within 40 seconds of the injection. Thirty-eight minutes later, he was pronounced dead.
Before his death, Busby shared his final words: “I am so sorry. I ask that you please, please don’t hate me and that you can find it in your heart to forgive me for the part that I played in what happened to her,” he said, according to NBC News.
He continued: “Please forgive me, please, if not for me, for yourself.
“Because the Father said if we don’t forgive those who wrong us, He will not forgive us.”
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