Edward Busby tears up during his jailhouse interview in Fort Worth February 20, 2004.
Huy Nguyen/DMN
HUNTSVILLE — In a milestone case for Texas, Edward Busby was executed Thursday evening for the 2004 abduction and murder of a 77-year-old woman in Fort Worth.
The 53-year-old was put to death by lethal injection in Huntsville after his clemency petition, and an eleventh-hour appeal to the nation’s highest court, delayed his execution into the night. He was pronounced dead at 8:11 p.m., marking the state’s 600th execution since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
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Guests sit in silent reflection as the church’s bells ring during a service of prayer and justice at Oak Lawn United Methodist Church on Thursday, May 14, 2026, in Dallas. The church was ringing its bells 600 times for the state’s 600th execution since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Edward Busby, who is set to be executed Thursday, will be the 600th person executed by the state of Texas.
Elías Valverde II/The Dallas Morning News
Senior pastor Rachel Griffin-Allison prays during a service of prayer and justice at Oak Lawn United Methodist Church on Thursday, May 14, 2026, in Dallas. The church was ringing its bells 600 times for the state’s 600th execution since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Edward Busby, who is set to be executed Thursday, will be the 600th person executed by the state of Texas.
Elías Valverde II/The Dallas Morning News
Busby was condemned by a Tarrant County jury in 2005 for the murder of Laura Lee Crane, a mother and retired education professor who spent much of her life nurturing children with learning disabilities. His then-girlfriend and codefendant Kathleen Latimer was also sentenced to life in prison for the crime.
In the room designated for his family, Busby’s sister was his sole witness. Only a man listed as a Crane family representative watched the execution from the room next door.
Busby used most of his final statement to apologize, profusely, for the “part he played” in the crime. He asked for forgiveness, adding “if not for me, for yourself.”
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“Please don’t hate me,” he said repeatedly. “I had no right to get in that car. I am so sorry.”
Turning to his sister, Busby asked that she surrender her life to God.
“I’m going home to be with Jesus,” he said. “I’ll see you on the other side.”
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After the execution, Bryan Rigg, who attended on behalf of Crane’s family, told reporters her loved ones wanted to share that while they do not support nor oppose the death penalty, they are “united in their respect for the rule of law.”
“The family believes strongly in respecting that process and in allowing justice to be administered according to the law — nothing more and nothing less,” he said.
The crime
Busby and Latimer abducted Crane on Jan. 30, 2004, from the parking lot of a Tom Thumb grocery store in Fort Worth. Records say the couple then drove her car to Oklahoma and used her credit cards and a blank check to steal more than $750.
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Crane’s body was found days later in Davis, Okla. According to court documents, she had been forced into her trunk, her head wrapped with duct tape. Her cause of death was asphyxiation.
Related: Texas appeals Edward Busby’s stay of execution on grounds of intellectual disability
In a jailhouse interview covered by The Dallas Morning News in 2004, Busby wept in front of reporters as he recounted the crime, alleging he never intended for anyone to die.
“I made it where she could breathe,” he said. “I don’t know what happened.”
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He planned to release Crane in Oklahoma, he said, where he hoped to find “a second chance at happiness” away from the troubles and addictions that consumed his life in Texas.
Related: James Broadnax executed, says ‘Texas got it wrong’ in final statement
Before she died, Busby said Crane asked him what had happened in his life to lead him to this point, and what his mother would think of his choices. “I knew my mother would be disgusted with me,” he said.
He said he apologized to Crane, praying with her several times.
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“She told me that God would forgive me,” Busby said. “I don’t know. Maybe he would. Maybe he wouldn’t.”
‘A remarkable person’
According to Crane’s obituary, she graduated from Fort Worth’s Paschal High School before receiving a bachelor of fine arts degree from Sweet Briar College and a Master of Arts from TCU. She went on to serve the university as an education professor and director of its Starpoint School, a facility for children with learning disabilities, for more than two decades.
Rigg was a student of Crane’s at the Starpoint School in 1979, when severe dyslexia and ADHD rendered him nearly incapable of reading and writing.
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Within nine months of learning under Crane, Rigg said, he was performing above grade level. Rigg said he’s certain he was only one of thousands of students her teaching transformed.
“Today’s moment is not fundamentally about vengeance,” he said. “It is about accountability under the law and about remembering the life of an extraordinary educator.
“Dr. Laura Lee Crane devoted her life to lifting others up, to giving children confidence, and to building a more compassionate society.”
Crane left behind three children of her own and a husband of 55 years.
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Appeals denied
By the time Thursday arrived, Busby had evaded execution twice before. His first date was in 2020, which was stayed over public health concerns during the coronavirus pandemic. The second was in 2021 after he argued he had an intellectual disability.
Busby raised the latter again earlier this year, this time with detailed assessments from independent experts retained by the state and defense.
According to copies of the assessments obtained by The News, both experts concluded his IQ scores and “adaptive functioning impairments,” or ability to manage ordinary life tasks, met the full diagnostic criteria for intellectual disability.
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Busby’s IQ scores, according to the records, have fallen within the range of 65 and 75 across numerous examinations over the years, findings the prosecution’s expert said showed “substantial intellectual deficits.”
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that it is cruel and unusual punishment to execute someone who is intellectually disabled, so a federal appeals court issued Busby a temporary stay last week.
The Texas attorney general’s office asked the high court to vacate the stay — and won with a 6-3 decision.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote they were in favor of the stay, calling it a “modest, responsible step” to allow the courts to decide if Busby was entitled to relief “before it’s too late.”
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“In capital cases, we rarely intervene to preserve life,” the opinion reads. “I cannot understand the Court’s rush to extinguish it, much less in the circumstances of this case. With respect, I dissent.”
Busby’s execution came two weeks after James Broadnax was put to death for a double homicide out of Dallas County, despite a last-minute confession from another man. There are currently four other executions scheduled in Texas through the end of the year, including two in September, one in October and another in November.
Texas’ 600th execution marked with 600 bell tolls
Shortly after 6 p.m. in Dallas, congregants gathered at Oak Lawn United Methodist Church to mark a milestone.
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Inside the chapel, they bowed their heads in prayer. A few wiped away tears as the church’s bells chimed 600 times, one for each execution Texas has carried out.
Executive pastor Ryan Wager offers words of reflections during a service of prayer and justice at Oak Lawn United Methodist Church on Thursday, May 14, 2026, in Dallas. The church was ringing its bells 600 times for the state’s 600th execution since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Edward Busby, who is set to be executed Thursday, will be the 600th person executed by the state of Texas.
Elías Valverde II/The Dallas Morning News
The Rev. Ryan Wager said Oak Lawn UMC’s congregation aims to stand up for justice and organized the bell-ringing in search of a way to “speak love more clearly.”
“The gospel teaches God’s love and ability to reconcile and not to judge someone by one specific event outweighs ending a cycle of violence with violence,” he told The News.
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In a video message to congregants, Texas U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico thanked the church for organizing the event, which he called a “reminder of our shared humanity” in light of a “somber milestone” for the state of Texas.
He expressed hope for a Texas guided by dignity, humanity and community.
Staff writers Elissa Jorgensen and Sophie Hanawalt contributed to this report.