Oldest Texas death row inmate executed for officer’s death

By JUAN A. LOZANO and MICHAEL GRACZYK
Associated Press

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — Texas’ oldest death row inmate has been executed for killing a Houston police officer during a traffic stop nearly 32 years ago. Carl Wayne Buntion was given a lethal injection Thursday at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He was sentenced to death for the June 1990 fatal shooting of Houston police officer James Irby. Buntion’s attorneys had claimed his execution would be unconstitutional, in part because so much time had passed following his conviction. But the U.S. Supreme Court declined to delay the execution. At 78, Buntion was the oldest person Texas has put to death in modern times. He was also the first inmate executed in Texas in 2022.