Texas man convicted of 2004 murder of TCU professor scheduled for execution
The Texas man convicted of kidnapping and murdering a retired 77-year-old Texas Christian University professor in 2004 has been scheduled for execution, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Edward Lee Busby was found guilty of abducting Laura Lee Crane from a Fort Worth grocery store parking lot and suffocating her. Busby was arrested in Oklahoma City, driving Crane's car. He led authorities to her body in Oklahoma, just north of the Texas border.
According to TDCJ, Busby will be executed on May 14, 2026.
Busby was previously scheduled to be executed on May 6, 2020, but it was stayed during the COVID-19 pandemic, along with several others. The appeals court didn't mention COVID-19 in its order; however, Busby's attorneys argued the execution should be delayed because they and others, including judges and personnel who carry out the execution, could be put at risk for getting the virus if it proceeded.
Busby's second execution date was delayed in 2021. His lawyers argued he had shown "significant limitations in intellectual functioning" and was thus ineligible for the death penalty.
The U.S. Supreme Court barred the execution of intellectually disabled people in 2002, but it has given states some discretion to decide how to determine such disabilities.
There are currently two other executions scheduled in Texas during 2026: Cedric Rick and Charles Thompson. Ricks was convicted of killing his common-law wife and her 8-year-old son and stabbing her 12-year-old son in Bedford in 2013. Thompson was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend in Harris County in 1998.