Carl Wayne Buntion

Carl Wayne Buntion (March 30, 1944 – April 21, 2022) was an American man convicted of capital murder in Texas and sentenced to death. On April 21, 2022, at the age of 78, he became the oldest inmate to be executed in Texas and the state's first execution of 2022.

Early life Buntion was born on March 30, 1944. When he was a child, his father murdered a man in front of one of his sons and was violent towards his whole family. In one incident, he smashed his wife's teeth.

Murder of James Irby On June 27, 1990, Buntion was the passenger in a vehicle that was pulled over by 37-year-old Houston Police Department officer James Irby. Irby began speaking with the driver, and Buntion exited the vehicle and shot Irby once in the head. Buntion was apprehended in a nearby building. Buntion went to trial again in 2012. At the trial, his brother testified about their childhood. They argued that Buntion's sentence should be commuted because it was imposed by a jury that wrongly predicted he would pose a future danger to fellow inmates.

Execution One week prior to Buntion's scheduled execution, he contracted pneumonia, which makes lethal injection more painful. On his return from the hospital, where he received treatment for pneumonia, Buntion received a head injury when the vehicle he was being transported in came to a sudden stop. Several dozen motorcyclists, including motorcycle officers from the Houston Police Department and retired officers from motorcycle clubs gathered outside the Huntsville Unit and revved their engines at the time of the execution.

In an interview about a week before the execution, Maura Irby, James Irby's widow, stated, "My whole adult life, I've spent saving lives and helping people. So the idea of condoning taking a life has been a challenge. It was from the beginning when we went through the first trial...But it's not about revenge...it's about justice."

Buntion is buried at Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery.