MAY 2022. Blues Vol 38 No. 5

AROUND THE COUNTRY

AROUND THE COUNTRY JUSTICE IS SERVED Texas executes Carl Buntion, the state’s oldest death row prisoner, for the murder of HPD Officer James Irby. Texas executed Carl Buntion on Thursday April 21 for the 1990 murder of a Houston police officer. At 78, he was the oldest prisoner executed in the state in the modern era of the death penalty. Prison officials began administering a lethal dose of pentobarbital at 6:26 p.m. and pronounced Buntion dead at 6:39 p.m. In a statement before his execution, Buntion directed comments to the family of officer James Irby and his own loved ones. “I wanted the Irby family to know one thing: I do have remorse for what I did,” Buntion said. “I pray to God that they get the closure for me killing their father and Ms. Irby’s husband. ... To all of my friends that stuck with me through all of these years, I am not going to say goodbye just saying so long. I am ready to go.” Leading up to the execution — which was the first the state carried out in 2022 — his lawyers argued that his age, as well as his decades of good behavior on death row, should have spared him from lethal injection. The U.S. Supreme Court denied a final plea to pause the execution on Thursday afternoon. “Having lived under a sentence of death for over three decades in a state which keeps its death-row prisoners in solitary confinement, Buntion has been punished to a degree exceeding that inflicted on anyone else outside of a very small number of death-row prisoners,” death row attorneys David Dow and Jeff Newberry wrote in a court briefing this month. “No legitimate purpose for the death penalty would be served by carrying out his execution,” the lawyers added. How about this for a legitimate purpose. Nearly 32 years ago, Buntion fatally shot Houston police officer Irby during a traffic stop, according to court records. While Irby was talking to the driver of the vehicle, Buntion, who at 46 had a history of drug-related and violent felonies, got out of the passenger side and shot the officer once in the forehead and twice more in the back when Irby fell to the ground. Prison records say there was heroin in the trunk of the car. While fleeing the scene, Buntion shot at a driver in a carjacking attempt, fired at another officer and held another person at gunpoint before he was arrested, the court records state. In 1991, he was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. But his execution was held off by prolonged legal fights over how juries should be instructed to weigh mitigating evidence, like mental illness or a troubled childhood, when considering the death penalty. The BLUES choose not to show the scumbag Buntion’s picture. We hope and pray that the Irby receives some comfort in knowing this scumbag is no longer among us. ALL FIRST RESPONDERS & VETERANS START THE NEW YEAR OFF WITH A NEW INTERIOR 10% OFF RETAIL 12722 Hwy. 3 Webster, Texas • 281-486-9739 18 The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE 19 CLICK HERE FOR WEBSITE