{"id":92201,"date":"2025-12-18T01:36:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T01:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/92201\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T01:36:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T01:36:13","slug":"execution-date-set-for-tarrant-county-man-convicted-of-killing-retired-tcu-professor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/92201\/","title":{"rendered":"Execution date set for Tarrant County man convicted of killing retired TCU professor"},"content":{"rendered":"

An execution date has been set for a man convicted of kidnapping \u2014 and killing \u2014 a retired professor from the parking lot of a Fort Worth grocery store in 2004. <\/p>\n

Edward Busby, 53, is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on May 14, 2026, in Huntsville. He was condemned by a Tarrant County jury in 2005 for the murder of 77-year-old Laura Lee Crane, a former Texas Christian University education professor and director of the Starpoint School, a facility for children with learning disabilities.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the Tarrant County district attorney\u2019s office said Crane was abducted on Jan. 30, 2004, in the parking lot of a Tom Thumb. Her head was wrapped with duct tape before she was forced into the trunk of her own car. <\/p>\n

Using her credit cards and a blank check, the statement said Busby stole more than $775.<\/p>\n

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Crane\u2019s body was found days later in Davis, OK. Her cause of death was asphyxiation. <\/p>\n

According to Crane\u2019s obituary, she graduated from Paschal High School before receiving a bachelor of fine arts degree from Sweet Briar College, and a master of arts from TCU. <\/p>\n

\u201cHer entire career was devoted to children with learning disabilities and special needs,\u201d her family wrote.<\/p>\n

Crane was also formerly a member of the Assembly Fort Worth Woman\u2019s Club and the Fort Worth Junior League.<\/p>\n

Busby previously faced execution in 2020 and 2021<\/a>. His 2020 date was stayed amid public health concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the latter was halted after Busby argued he had an intellectual disability. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals later denied him relief. <\/p>\n

The Dallas County men \u2014 and woman \u2014 on Texas\u2019 death row <\/a>Robert Roberson asks court to consider New Jersey\u2019s landmark shaken baby ruling<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An execution date has been set for a man convicted of kidnapping \u2014 and killing \u2014 a retired…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151,815,294,2315,116,122],"class_list":{"0":"post-92201","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arlington","8":"tag-arlington","9":"tag-arlington-headlines","10":"tag-arlington-news","11":"tag-courts","12":"tag-crime","13":"tag-death-penalty","14":"tag-fort-worth","15":"tag-tarrant-county"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}