Execution Report: Carl Buntion

Carl Wayne Buntion, 78, was executed by lethal injection on 21 April 2022 in Huntsville, Texas for the murder of a police officer during a traffic stop.

On Wednesday, 27 June 1990, Houston police officer James Irby, 37, pulled over an automobile in Houston for a traffic violation. As he was speaking with the driver, John Killingsworth, 42, the passenger, Buntion, then 46, shot him once in the head with a .357-caliber revolver. Buntion then exited the vehicle, walked around the front, and shot Irby twice more in the back as he lay on the ground. He then fled on foot. A bystander used the radio on Irby's patrol motorcycle to call for help. Buntion fired his weapon at one witness in a failed carjacking attempt and shot at another officer. He held another person at gunpoint. He fled into a nearby warehouse, where he surrendered and was captured.

The trunk of the automobile Killingsworth and Buntion were in contained heroin.

Buntion had at least seven prior felony convictions going back to age 17. His crimes included auto theft, burglary, theft, damage to property, and possession of narcotics. He had previously been returned to prison on three occasions for violating the terms of his release. His latest conviction was for sexual assault of a child, which happened while he was on parole. He began serving a 15-year prison sentence in April 1989. He was paroled a year later. (At the time, parole of repeat felony offenders was common in Texas due to strict prison population caps imposed by U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice.)

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