Alito Jr. of the US Supreme Court orders Suspension of Execution in Missouri

Associated Press
Bonne Terre, Mo. — Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. of the United States Supreme Court late Tuesday issued an order halting the planned execution of a Missouri inmate.

Justice Alito’s order did not offer an explanation of why he had suspended the scheduled execution of Russell Bucklew, but it indicated that he or the Supreme Court would have more to say about the matter.

The order was issued shortly after the full United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit lifted a stay of execution granted hours earlier by a three-judge panel of that court. The panel had issued the stay over concerns that a rare medical condition Mr. Bucklew has could cause him undue suffering during the lethal injection.

Mr. Bucklew was scheduled to die by lethal injection at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.

The 2-to-1 ruling by the panel said Mr. Bucklew’s “unrebutted medical evidence demonstrates the requisite sufficient likelihood of unnecessary pain and suffering beyond the constitutionally permissible amount inherent in all executions.”

The execution would have been the first in the nation after a botched lethal injection in Oklahoma last month left a condemned man writhing on a gurney before he died of a heart attack more than 40 minutes after the procedure began.

Mr. Bucklew, 46, has a congenital condition known as cavernous hemangioma that causes weakened and malformed blood vessels, as well as tumors in his nose and throat.

Mr. Bucklew told The Associated Press by telephone last week that he was scared of what might happen.

“The state does not have the right to inflict extreme, torturous pain during an execution,” said one of his lawyers, Cheryl Pilate. “We still hope that Mr. Bucklew’s grave medical condition and compromised airway will persuade the governor or a court to step back from this extremely risky execution.”

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Missouri, sospesa pena di morte - Corte appello: ok richiesta condannato

Una corte d'appello statunitense ha sospeso un'iniezione letale prevista sei ore più tardi nel Missouri, tre settimane dopo la lunga agonia di un condannato a morte in Oklahoma. Russell Bucklew, condannato alla pena capitale per l'uccisione del suo rivale amoroso e lo stupro della sua ex compagna, ha contestato davanti alla giustizia la norma del segreto di Stato che circonda la provenienza dei barbiturici utilizzati per le esecuzioni negli Stati Uniti.