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#Post#: 497--------------------------------------------------
~ Carl Buntion, 21Apr22, (TX) ~
By: BuzzC Date: March 8, 2022, 1:28 pm
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Texas’ Oldest Death Row Inmate, Cop Killer Carl Wayne Buntion,
Set To Die In April--
January 4th, 2022
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HOUSTON (CBSDFW.COM/AP) – The oldest Texas death row inmate is
to be executed in April for killing a Houston police officer
more than 30 years ago, prosecutors said Tuesday, Jan. 4.
A Houston state judge scheduled the execution of Carl Wayne
Buntion, 77, for April 21 during a court hearing on Tuesday.
Buntion had been on parole for six weeks when he fatally shot
Houston police officer James Irby, 37, during a June 1990
traffic stop.
Buntion, who had an extensive criminal record, was a passenger
in the car that Irby pulled over.
“He shot a policeman in the head more than 30 years ago, and it
is time that he be held accountable for his horrific crime,”
said Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg.
Buntion was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death
in 1991, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals vacated his
death sentence in 2009.
A jury in 2012 returned him to death row following a new
sentencing trial.
In October, the U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal by Buntion’s
lawyers.
8)
#Post#: 499--------------------------------------------------
Re: ~ Carl Buntion, 21Apr22, (TX) ~
By: BuzzC Date: April 26, 2022, 12:39 pm
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Convicted killer Carl Wayne Buntion executed for 1990 slaying of
HPD officer James Irby--
Friday, April 22, 2022
Carl Wayne Buntion, convicted in the 1990 slaying of a Houston
police officer, was executed Thursday evening in Huntsville — as
lawyers battled until the last minute to stop his death, even if
temporarily.
Buntion, 78, gunned down motorcycle officer James Irby during a
June evening traffic stop on a Northside street, with news
reports at the time stating that he had vowed to avenge his twin
brother’s 1971 death at the hands of a police officer.
Buntion, the first person in Texas executed in 2022, was the
oldest inmate on the state’s death row, and his lawyers had
reported he had mounting health problems. The Texas Department
of Criminal Justice marked his death as 6:39 p.m., about 13
minutes after the lethal dose began.
In his final remarks, he expressed remorse for killing Irby
during what he described as a shootout.
Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, who witnessed his
statement and then his death, said that was not the case.
“There was no shootout — there was a murder,” she said as nearby
anti-death penalty demonstrators denounced her name. She hoped
that with Buntion’s death, Irby’s family could find peace.
Lawyers for Buntion appealed to the Supreme Court for a stay,
but Justice Samuel Alito denied the motion. His colleague,
Justice Stephen Bryer, addressed the decision.
“This case illustrates a serious legal and practical problem
with the death penalty as it is currently administered,” Bryer
said in a statement, going on to question the execution in light
of Buntion’s two decades in solitary confinement.
“Buntion has suffered under such conditions for decades,” he
wrote. “When efforts to administer the death penalty produce
results such as this, it raises serious questions about whether
that practice complies with the Constitution’s prohibition
against cruel and unusual punishment.”
Amid the last minute filing of court documents, droves of HPD
motorcycle officers parked in front of the brick Huntsville
Unit. Inmates in white jumpsuits were visible peering out the
windows at reporters across the street.
Private motorcycle clubs consisting of active and retired law
enforcement revved their engines before Buntion gave his final
statement, which went on for five minutes. The noise was audible
inside the chamber, where witnesses could hear.
University of Texas at Austin professor Barbara Laubenthal
flipped off police officers after witnessing the execution as a
friend of Buntion. She decried the engine noise as
“disrespectful.”
“We could hear it, loud and clear,” Laubenthal said. “The state
of Texas got its punishment. But to rub it in and show this kind
of revenge and disrespect while a human being is dying — it was
disgusting.”
Buntion had no family left, she said.
Buntion thanked Laubenthal and others who stayed with him.
“To all of my friend (sic) that stuck with me through all of
these years, I am not going to say goodbye. Just saying so
long,” Buntion concluded. “I am ready to go to heaven, warden.”
A spiritual adviser touched his ankle and sang Psalm 23 for five
minutes. Buntion mouthed the words until he could not because of
the lethal chemicals. He took a deep breath, coughed and then
gave out three breaths — each more shallow than the last.
Buntion was 46 and a recent parolee when Irby pulled over the
heroin-toting Pontiac that he rode in, according to court
records. He shot Irby, 37, in the head with a revolver as the
officer spoke to the driver. He shot him again, twice, in the
back after he collapsed to the ground.
Buntion fled the traffic stop, firing gunshots at the drivers
who witnessed the attack near the Interstate 45 feeder road. One
bystander used Irby's radio to call for help. Authorities
tracked Buntion to the nearby Pony Express warehouse, where he
later surrendered.
Irby was an 18-year veteran of the police department. He left
behind a wife and two children, who were 3 and 1 at the time of
the shooting.
His wife, Maura, referred to Buntion as a cancer rather than a
human.
“I felt like I took the deepest breath I was able to in the last
32 years,” she said, clutching a cane. “I felt joy.”
Police Chief Troy Finner joined the officers outside the unit,
rather than witness the execution. His remarks following the
death focused on supporting the family and the closure they must
feel.
Although Texas has been the nation’s busiest capital punishment
state, it had been nearly seven months since it carried out an
execution.
Buntion filed a last minute motion to withdraw the execution
date, which prosecutors opposed and called a “ ‘Hail Mary pass’
to prevent this evening’s scheduled execution.”
A medical expert declared Buntion may have pneumonia but
prosecutors said a diagnosis for that and hematuria happened
April 13 and he was prescribed medications and discharged.
Recent oxygen levels, pulse and temperature were reportedly
normal, according to court records.
“The applicant has received the due process he is due,” wrote
prosecutor Joshua Reiss, who oversees post-conviction writs for
the district attorney’s office.
Judge Kelli Johnson, who in December signed the death warrant,
rejected Buntion’s motion.
8)
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