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Who is Carl Buntion? Oldest Texas death row inmate, 78, to be executed for killing cop

His lawyers have claimed the execution would violate the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment considering his long incarceration

Carl Wayne Buntion, the oldest death row inmate in Texas at 78, is scheduled to be executed on Thursday, April 21, for the killing of a Houston police officer over three decades ago.

Buntion's execution received the green light after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted against recommending that Governor Greg Abbott grant the convict clemency or a reprieve. In a petition, his lawyers argued that their client's sentence should be commuted because it was allegedly imposed by a jury that wrongly predicted he would be a danger to fellow inmates. The petition describes Buntion as "a frail, elderly man who requires specialized care to perform basic functions" and is "no longer capable of being dangerous." It also claimed the execution would violate the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment considering his long incarceration.

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With an extensive rap sheet, Buntion was out on parole after serving time for the sexual assault of a child when he fatally shot 37-year-old James Irby during a traffic stop in June 1990. According to Newsweek, he was a passenger in a car pulled over by Irby. Authorities said Irby and the driver of the vehicle were talking when Buntion got off and shot the officer in the head at point-blank range. As Irby lay on the ground, Buntion reportedly shot him twice in the back and fled the scene before firing at others and being apprehended in a nearby building.

The convict expressed remorse in a recent interview with KHOU 11 News. "Every day for the last 32 years I have regretted what happened," he said. "If that was Mrs. Irby sitting right there, I'd tell her the same thing: 'I'm sorry it happened.' My heart aches every day for her and her and her kids. Maybe by me being executed, maybe they can finally put this thing behind them." Buntion said he found religion during his time on death row and will spend his final days reading the Bible.

When asked for comment, Irby's widow Maura Irby told the station it was the first time she'd heard remorse from her husband's killer. "That's amazing because he's never shown any kind of remorse for any of us," she said, adding that she had been "caught off guard" earlier this year when she learned Buntion's execution date had been set. "After nearly 32 years, we thought he was just going to die of old age," she said. "We were quite relieved and saddened. It's still a conflict, I don't know if I can actually watch him be executed."

While announcing Buntion's execution date in January, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said, "He shot a policeman in the head more than 30 years ago, and it is time that he be held accountable for his horrific crime. He robbed Officer Irby of his life and deprived the Irby family of a lifetime of memories with him; it is time for them to have justice." Buntion was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in 1991. His sentence, however, was vacated by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 2009, before a fresh sentencing trial in 2012 returned him to death row. The Supreme Court denied an appeal by Buntion in October 2021, but Justice Stephen Breyer noted that Buntion's "lengthy confinement, and the confinement of others like him, calls into question the constitutionality of the death penalty and reinforces the need for this Court, or other courts, to consider that question in an appropriate case."