A “spiritual advisor” could be by his side and touch him during the execution, authorities said, a first in Texas.
In front of the high red brick walls of the Huntsville jail, some protesters shouted “Execution is not the solution” while dozens of people gathered to campaign for the opposite.
The victim’s family, a police officer, was also present.
“Complaint dismissed”
Attorneys for Carl Buntion said they had appealed to the United States Supreme Court, to no avail.
In Texas, a person can only be sentenced to death if a jury determines that they pose a future danger to others.
However, Mr. Buntion, who suffers from osteoarthritis, dizziness, hepatitis and cirrhosis in particular, “can no longer be dangerous”, his lawyers had pleaded in an appeal against the parole board and Texas parole that has since been dismissed.
Isolated 23 hours a day
In June 1990, this man, raised by an alcoholic and violent father, had already been convicted of sexually assaulting a child 13 times and was on probation. Carl Buntion shot and killed Police Officer James Irby while intervening for a common traffic violation in Houston.
Sentenced to the death penalty, he had seen that sentence overturned in 2009 by the Texas Supreme Court, which felt the jury could not adequately hear the defense. But in 2012 he was again sentenced to death.
Carl Buntion was isolated in his cell 23 hours a day for 20 years.
Buntion is on death row for killing HPD officer James Irby in 1990. On April 21, 2022, the hardest chapter in the life of Irby’s family will finally come to an end. https://t.co/nKkL3g3B6R
— KHOU 11 News Houston (@KHOU) April 17, 2022
Temporary grace period
In Tennessee, Gov. Bill Lee announced Thursday afternoon that Oscar Smith’s execution would not take place that evening “due to an error in preparing the lethal injection” and granted a “temporary pardon” while the matter was resolved.
Oscar Smith, 72, was convicted of the 1989 murder of his estranged wife and their two sons. All of Oscar Smith’s appeals have so far been denied. His lawyers had lodged a final appeal with the Supreme Court. “Following a thorough review of Oscar Smith’s clemency petition and a thorough review of the case, the Tennessee State’s judgment stands and I will not intervene,” Bill Lee said Tuesday.
A decision that Mr Smith’s lawyer then considered “extremely disappointing”. The latter “has maintained his innocence for more than thirty years,” Amy Harwell told CNN, who claims new DNA analysis techniques on the murder weapon prove his denial.