Texas’ 600th execution demands a reckoning on death penalty
Caroline MolloyTexas executed Edward Busby Jr. on May 14, marking a devastating milestone in our state’s history.
Busby is the 600th person to be executed under Texas’ modern-day death penalty system. He was put to death despite a lengthy legal battle, multiple stays, and agreement by experts retained by both the defense and the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office that Busby was ineligible for execution due to his intellectual disability.
We’ve learned a lot about the death penalty since 1982, when Texas resumed executions. Busby’s case is one of many examples of the flaws and failures that permeate the system — particularly the inherent arbitrariness. Since 2017, 19 people in Texas have been removed from death row after courts recognized they were intellectually disabled and ineligible for execution. Yet Busby was denied this same finding despite experts in his case agreeing he meets the criteria.
But the persistent issues with capital punishment in Texas don’t stop there. With 18 exonerations from Texas death row, evidence of at least eight wrongful executions, millions of wasted taxpayer dollars, and countless grieving families torn apart, it is clear the death penalty is a failure both morally and systematically.
