HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Texas’ longest-serving death row inmate was executed Thursday for killing a Houston police officer during a traffic stop nearly 32 years ago.

Carl Wayne Buntion, 78, was executed at Huntsville State Penitentiary. He was convicted for the fatal June 1990 shooting of Houston police officer James Irby, a member of the force for nearly 20 years.

The United States Supreme Court had denied a request by Buntion’s attorneys to halt his execution.

“I wanted the Irby family to know one thing: I am remorseful for what I did,” Buntion said as he was strapped to the Texas death chamber stretcher. “I pray to God they get closure for me killing their father and Mrs Irby’s husband.

“I hope to see you in heaven one day and when you arrive I’ll give you a big hug.”

Irby, joined by his spiritual advisor, began to pray Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd…” as the lethal dose of the powerful sedative pentobarbital began. He took a deep breath, coughed once, then took three shallower breaths before all movement stopped.

He was pronounced dead at 6:39 p.m., 13 minutes later.

Several dozen motorcyclists, showing their support for the slain motorcycle officer, revved their engines during the execution, the roar clearly audible in the death chamber.

Buntion had only been on parole for six weeks when he shot Irby, 37. Buntion, who had a lengthy criminal record, was a passenger in the car Irby stopped. In 2009, an appeals court overturned Buntion’s sentence, but another jury sentenced him to death three years later.

“I feel joy,” said the officer’s widow, Maura Irby, after watching Buntion’s execution. “I’m sorry someone died. But I didn’t consider him a person. cancer on the face of my family.

Prior to his murder, James Irby had spoken about retirement and spending more time with his two children, who were 1 and 3 at the time, Maura Irby, 60, said earlier.

“He was ready to fill out the paperwork and stay home and open a grocery store,” she said. “He wanted to be the dad who was there to watch all the ball games and father-daughter dances. He was a great guy, the love of my life. »

Prior to his execution, various state and federal courts had also denied appeals by Buntion’s attorneys to have his death sentence terminated. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected his request for a pardon on Tuesday.

Buntion’s lawyers said he was responsible for Irby’s death and “deserves severe punishment for this crime”.

But they argued that his execution was unconstitutional because the jury’s conclusion that he would be a future danger to society – one of the reasons he was sentenced to death – turned out to be incorrect, and also his execution would serve no legitimate purpose because so much time has passed. since his conviction. His lawyers described Buntion as a geriatric inmate who posed no threat as he suffered from arthritis, dizziness and required a wheelchair.

“This three-decade delay undermines the justification for the death penalty … Whatever deterrent effect is diminished by the delay,” his attorneys David Dow and Jeffrey Newberry wrote in court documents.

With his execution, Buntion became the oldest person Texas has put to death since the Supreme Court lifted a ban on capital punishment in 1976. The oldest inmate executed in the United States at the time modern was Walter Moody Jr., who was 83 when he was put to death in Alabama in 2018.

Buntion was also the first inmate executed in Texas in 2022. Although Texas is the busiest capital punishment state in the nation, it has been nearly seven months since he last carried out an execution. There have been only three executions in each of the past two years, in part because of the coronavirus pandemic and delays over legal issues over Texas’ refusal to allow spiritual counselors to touch inmates and to pray aloud in the death chamber.

In March, the U.S. Supreme Court said states must agree to demands that religious leaders pray and touch detainees during executions.

As Texas prepared to execute Buntion, Tennessee officials canceled the execution of an inmate Thursday in what would have been the state’s first execution since the pandemic began. Oscar Smith, 72, was due to die for the 1989 murders of his ex-wife and teenage sons. Republican Gov. Bill Lee did not specify what issue forced the surprise 11th-hour stoppage of the scheduled execution.

Texas prison officials agreed to Buntion’s request to allow his spiritual advisor to pray aloud and touch him as he was put to death.

Counselor Barry Brown placed his right hand on Buntion’s right ankle moments before the drugs began to flow and prayed for about five minutes. He said Buntion was no longer the “hard-headed young man” but had been “humbled by the walls and the cold steel of the prison”.

Although the execution brought back painful memories, Irby said it also reminded her of her work advocating for public safety after her husband’s death, including helping to craft legislation allowing victim impact statements at trials. .

“I still miss him, 32 years later,” she said Thursday night.

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Lozano reported from Houston.

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Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70