James Broadnax executed, says ‘Texas got it wrong’ in final statement<\/a><\/p>\nBefore 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. \u201cI knew my mother would be disgusted with me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said he apologized to Crane, praying with her several times.<\/p>\n
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\u201cShe told me that God would forgive me,\u201d Busby said. \u201cI don\u2019t know. Maybe he would. Maybe he wouldn\u2019t.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018A remarkable person\u2019<\/p>\n
According to Crane\u2019s obituary, she graduated from Fort Worth\u2019s Paschal High School before receiving a bachelor of fine arts degree from Sweet Briar College and a Master of Arts from\u00a0TCU. 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. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rigg was a student of Crane\u2019s at the Starpoint School in 1979, when severe dyslexia and ADHD rendered him nearly incapable of reading and writing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Within nine months of learning under Crane, Rigg said, he was performing above grade level. Rigg said he\u2019s certain he was only one of thousands of students her teaching transformed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s moment is not fundamentally about vengeance,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is about accountability under the law and about remembering the life of an extraordinary educator.<\/p>\n
\u201cDr. Laura Lee Crane devoted her life to lifting others up, to giving children confidence, and to building a more compassionate society.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crane left behind three children of her own and a husband of 55 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Appeals denied<\/p>\n
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\u00a0coronavirus pandemic. The second was in 2021 after he argued he had an intellectual disability. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Busby raised the latter again earlier this year, this time with detailed assessments from independent experts retained by the state and defense.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to copies of the assessments obtained by The News, both experts concluded his IQ scores and \u201cadaptive functioning impairments,\u201d or ability to manage ordinary life tasks, met the full diagnostic criteria for intellectual disability. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
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Busby\u2019s IQ scores, according to the records, have fallen within the range of 65 and 75 across numerous examinations over the years, findings the prosecution\u2019s expert said showed \u201csubstantial intellectual deficits.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The Texas attorney general\u2019s office asked the high court to vacate the stay\u00a0\u2014 and won with a 6-3 decision. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote they were in favor of the stay, calling it a \u201cmodest, responsible step\u201d to allow the courts to decide if Busby was entitled to relief \u201cbefore it\u2019s too late.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cIn capital cases, we rarely intervene to preserve life,\u201d the opinion reads. \u201cI cannot understand the Court\u2019s rush to extinguish it, much less in the circumstances of this case. With respect, I dissent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Busby\u2019s execution came two weeks after James\u00a0Broadnax 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.<\/p>\n
Texas\u2019 600th execution marked with 600 bell tolls\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shortly after 6 p.m. in Dallas, congregants gathered at Oak Lawn United Methodist Church to mark a milestone.<\/p>\n
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Inside the chapel, they bowed their heads in prayer. A few wiped away tears as the church\u2019s bells chimed 600 times, one for each execution Texas has carried out.<\/p>\n
![\"Executive]()
<\/p>\n
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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
The Rev. Ryan Wager said Oak Lawn\u00a0UMC\u2019s congregation aims to stand up for justice and organized the bell-ringing in search of a way to \u201cspeak love more clearly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe gospel teaches God\u2019s love and ability to reconcile and not to judge someone by one specific event outweighs ending a cycle of violence with violence,\u201d he told The News.<\/p>\n
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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 \u201creminder of our shared humanity\u201d in light of a \u201csomber milestone\u201d for the state of Texas.<\/p>\n
He expressed hope for a Texas guided by dignity, humanity and community.<\/p>\n
Staff writers Elissa Jorgensen and Sophie Hanawalt contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Edward Busby tears up during his jailhouse interview in Fort Worth February 20, 2004. Huy Nguyen\/DMN HUNTSVILLE\u00a0\u2014 In…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":797309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,4219,16045,7371,7372,358,324926,324927,325183,324427,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-797308","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-death-penalty","11":"tag-fort-worth","12":"tag-fortworth","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-tp-fort-worth","15":"tag-tp-tarrant-county","16":"tag-tp-courts","17":"tag-tp-texas","18":"tag-tx","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116576568103972980","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}