Texas executes man who killed Houston police officer during 1990 traffic stop

April 21 (UPI) -- Texas carried out its first execution of the year Thursday with the lethal injection of a man who killed a Houston police officer during a traffic stop more than three decades ago.

Carl Buntion was executed at the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas after the Supreme Court denied a stay of execution earlier in the evening, becoming the fourth person put to death in the United States this year.

Buntion was the oldest person on the state's death row at 78. He was sentenced in 1991 for shooting to death 37-year-old motorcycle officer James Irby.

The officer was killed in 1990 after he pulled over a vehicle occupied by Buntion and John Killingsworth for a traffic violation. According to a state records, Buntion shot Irby once in the head before shooting him twice more in the back as he lay on the ground.

Buntion fired his gun at three other people as he fled the scene into a nearby warehouse, where he was subsequently apprehended. Killingsworth was sentenced to prison on drug charges after police found heroin in the vehicle.

The Houston Chronicle reported that Buntion's twin brother had been killed by police in 1971 and that he'd vowed to avenge his death.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted against recommending clemency for Buntion.

Defense lawyers had sought a commutation, saying their client doesn't pose a future danger because of his age and poor health. They argued that because of this, Buntion's execution would violate Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment.

"The spectacle of executing a frail, elderly man who requires specialized care, including the use of a wheelchair, to perform basic functions, is deeply troubling and would be yet another stain on the state of Texas and its notorious use of the death penalty," Kristin Houlé Cuellar, executive director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, told Newsweek.

"After spending more than 30 years on death row, Carl Wayne Buntion does not pose a threat to anyone. It serves no legitimate purpose to execute him now. Buntion should be allowed to live his remaining days in prison."

Irby's widow Maura said she expects to feel some relief after Buntion is executed.

"I hope we can close the book," she told KTRK-TV. "Not having anything over our heads that we can't predict ... I feel relieved."

Buntion was one of two people scheduled to be executed on Thursday. In Tennessee, 72-year-old Oscar Smith was also set to die by lethal injection for killing his estranged wife and her two sons in 1989 but Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said the execution would not move forward "due to an oversight in the preparation for lethal injection."

Like Buntion, Smith is the oldest person on death row in his state.