A Missouri man convicted of killing a man during a
1996 crime spree was executed October 1, 2019 , despite concerns that the inmate’s rare
medical condition would cause a gruesome lethal injection.
Russell Bucklew was executed at the state prison in
Bonne Terre. It was Missouri’s first execution since January 2017, reported The Associated Press.
Bucklew had twice previously been within hours of
execution, only to have the U.S. Supreme Court grant last-minute reprieves over
concerns that he might suffer during the execution process. He had a condition
called cavernous hemangioma and had blood-filled tumors in his head, neck and
throat. He breathed with help from a tracheostomy tube.
Bucklew’s attorneys said in a clemency request to Gov.
Mike Parson that a throat tumor could burst, causing Bucklew to choke and die
painfully and in violation of the constitutional guarantee against cruel and
unusual punishment.
Bucklew looked around and twitched his feet beneath
the sheet as he lay on the gurney just before the lethal injection. He suddenly
took a deep breath and all movement stopped.
There were no outward signs of distress.
Adding to the concern was Missouri’s secretive
execution drug. The state uses a single dose of pentobarbital but refuses to
say where it gets it. The source is believed to be a compound pharmacy since
large pharmaceutical companies prohibit the use of their drugs in executions.
The Supreme Court stepped in to halt Bucklew’s
execution in 2014 and again in 2018. But in April, the high court gave the
go-ahead for Bucklew to be executed.
Human rights groups and death penalty opponents,
including all four Roman Catholic bishops in Missouri and the American Civil
Liberties Union, urged Parson to grant clemency and remand Bucklew to life in
prison without parole. The ACLU and Missourians for Alternatives to the Death
Penalty presented the governor’s office on Thursday with petitions that they
said included more than 57,000 signatures.
But Parson, a Republican who worked in law enforcement
for more than 20 years and is a staunch death penalty supporter, decided early
Tuesday that the execution could proceed.
Inmates’ medical conditions have affected other recent
execution attempts.
In 2017, the execution of twice-convicted killer Alva
Campbell, who suffered from smoking-related breathing problems, had to be
halted in Ohio when a usable vein couldn’t be found to administer execution
drugs. He died in 2018 at age 69.
In 2018, Alabama halted the lethal injection of Doyle
Lee Hamm when the execution team had trouble getting the intravenous line
connected. Hamm had damaged veins because of lymphoma, hepatitis and drug use.
A doctor hired by Hamm’s lawyers wrote in a report that Hamm had at least 11
puncture sites and bled heavily from his groin during the attempts to connect
the line.
Bucklew’s girlfriend, Stephanie Ray, left him on
Valentine’s Day 1996. Over the next few weeks, according to court records, he
harassed her, cut her with a knife and punched her in the face.
Ray feared for her life and the lives of her children,
so she moved into the Cape Girardeau County mobile home that her new boyfriend,
Michael Sanders, shared with his children.
On March 21, after stealing his nephew’s car and
taking two pistols, handcuffs and duct tape from his brother, Bucklew followed
Ray to Sanders’ home. Sanders confronted Bucklew with a shotgun inside the
home. Bucklew fired two shots, one piercing Sanders’ lung. He bled to death.
Bucklew then shot at Sanders’ 6-year-old son and
missed. Court records say he struck Ray in the face with the pistol, handcuffed
her and dragged her to his car. He later raped Ray before heading north on
Interstate 55.
A trooper spotted Bucklew’s car and eventually became
engaged in a gunfight near St. Louis. Both men were wounded. Bucklew later
escaped from the Cape Girardeau County Jail. He attacked Ray’s mother and her
boyfriend with a hammer before being recaptured.
Bucklew’s attorneys, Cheryl Pilate and Jeremy Weis,
said in a statement that Bucklew was remorseful for his crimes.
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