JIM SUHR, Associated Press
BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) â A Missouri inmate’s hopes rest with the U.S. Supreme Court after he got a reprieve shortly before his scheduled execution.
Russell Bucklew was scheduled to be executed at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday for the 1996 killing of a romantic rival. But Justice Samuel Alito granted him a reprieve late Tuesday so that the full Supreme Court can weigh his appeal later Wednesday.
Bucklew has a rare medical condition that causes weakened and malformed blood vessels. His attorneys say he could be subjected to an agonizing death if given a lethal injection of the state’s secretly-sourced execution drug.
If the Supreme Court rejects Bucklew’s appeal the state could decide to proceed with the execution. It would have until midnight Wednesday to kill Bucklew.
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BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has issued an order halting the planned execution of a Missouri inmate.
Alito’s order issued late Tuesday does not explain why he suspended the scheduled execution of Russell Bucklew, but it indicates that he or the high court will have more to say about the matter.
The order was issued shortly after the full 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a stay of execution granted hours earlier by a three-judge panel of that court.
The panel issued the stay over concerns that Bucklew’s rare medical condition could cause him undue suffering during lethal injection.
Bucklew was scheduled to die by lethal injection at 12:01 Wednesday