Texas Execution: Suzanne Basso Becomes Only 14th Woman Executed In US History Since 1976


A Texas woman convicted of murdering a mentally impaired man was executed Wednesday evening according to a report on Time Magazine‘s web site. Suzanne Basso was convicted of the murder of Louis “Buddy” Musso, a mentally impaired man lured to his death by the promise of marriage and became only the 14th woman to be put to death in the United States since capital punishment was reinstituted back in 1962.

The brutal nature of the 1998 crime prompted the courts to rule that Basso be executed for her heinous crime. According to the Associated Press, Musso was lured to his death by the promise that Basso would marry him, but was instead tortured and beaten to death:

“Musso, whose battered and lacerated body, washed with bleach and scoured with a wire brush, was found in a ditch outside Houston,” the report said. “Prosecutors said Basso had made herself the beneficiary of Musso’s insurance policies and took over his Social Security benefits after luring him from New Jersey.”

The first woman to be executed after the 1976 resumption of capital punishment in America was Velma Barfield in North Carolina on November 2, 1984. Barfield was a serial killer convicted for one murder, but eventually confessing to six more. She was the first woman in the United States since 1962 to be sentenced to death and also the first woman to be executed by lethal injection.

The Basso case meanwhile, had several twists and turns leading up to the second Texas execution this year alone. A last ditch attempt by Basso’s attorney to overturn the sentence was rejected by the Supreme Court who argued she was not mentally competent to be executed. According to the AP, “Basso’s attorney, Winston Cochran Jr., argued she suffered from delusions and that the state law governing competency was unconstitutionally flawed.”

But working against Basso was the fact that she had already created several false stories regarding her past:

“She acknowledged lying about her background, including that she was a triplet, worked in the New York governor’s office and had a relationship with Nelson Rockefeller.”

The last female to be executed in both Texas and the US was Kimberly McCarthy back in June of 2013. The 52-year-old was convicted of the murder of her neighbor back in 1997 and sentenced to death by lethal injection. Her execution was a milestone, the 500th execution in the state since legal executions were resumed in 1982.

Lethal injection was also the chosen method for the Basso execution. According to the Time Magazine report, Basso “was pronounced dead at 6:26 p.m. CST” in Huntsville, Texas.

Share this article: Texas Execution: Suzanne Basso Becomes Only 14th Woman Executed In US History Since 1976
More from Inquisitr