North Texas man executed for 2004 killing of TCU professor

A North Texas man whom experts for both prosecutors and defense attorneys had said was intellectually disabled became the 600th person executed in Texas since 1982, put to death Thursday evening for the killing of a retired 77-year-old college professor. Edward Busby, Jr. TDCJ Edward Busby, Jr. was pronounced dead at 8:11 p.m. local time following a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, hours after a divided Supreme Court lifted a stay over his disability claims. The execution followed a series of last-minute legal efforts by Busby's attorneys in a bid to spare his life after the nation's high court lifted a stay hours earlier. Busby was condemned for the suffocation death of Laura Lee Crane, a 77-year-old retired professor from Texas Christian University who prosecutors say was abducted from a grocery store parking lot in January 2004 and left to suffocate in the trunk of her car with duct tape wrapped around her face. Busby appeared extremely contrite when asked by the warden if he had a final statement, repeatedly apologizing and asking for forgiveness – before the drugs began flowing. Busby's execution had been in doubt after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week issued a stay to further review his claims of intellectual disability. But the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the stay on Thursday at the request of the Texas Attorney General's Office. …