The U.S. Supreme Court suspended the execution of Missouri death row inmate Russell Bucklew late Tuesday. He is the second death row inmate who has been granted a stay since the Oklahoma botched execution last month.
The verdict comes shortly after a federal judge okayed the death sentence and denied Bucklew's request of videotaping the execution. The Supreme Court Justice Samuel L Alito Jr wrote that the execution will be halted "pending further order" from Alito or the full court.
Bucklew's lawyers had argued that he suffers from a rare birth defect that causes tumors, which bleed, and difficulty in breathing. This might hamper the circulation of the lethal dose and could choke Bucklew to death.
A three-judge appellate panel ordered stay on the execution saying, "Bucklew's unrebutted medical evidence demonstrates the requisite sufficient likelihood of unnecessary pain and suffering beyond the constitutionally permissible amount inherent in all executions," reports Reuters.
Bucklew, a 46-year-old murder and rape convict, said in an interview with The Guardian last week that he was scared of the execution after learning that the Oklahoma death row inmate Clayton Lockett's lethal dose administration went wrong. "I'm sick about it not working on me. I'm afraid that it's going to turn me into a vegetable, that I'd be brain dead. You saw what happened down in Oklahoma," he said. "I'm the next guy up - am I gonna get all screwed up here? Are they gonna screw it up?"
Missouri's corrections department had challenged Bucklew's claim regarding the birth defect. They argued that he successfully underwent surgery while under anesthesia meaning that the lethal injection should work. The panel also questioned why he raised the issue just days before his execution, when he had the problem for years.
Missouri law states that it can carry out the death sentence within 24 hours if the high court rejects his appeals. This means that Bucklew still could be put to death anytime Wednesday, reports the Associated Press.
The botched execution of 38-year-old Lockett prompted three death row inmates including Bucklew to appeal citing the incident. Lockett, a rape and murder convict, was given three untested combinations of lethal drugs April 29. He died of a massive heart attack 43 minutes later after suffering great pain.
Prior to Bucklew, a federal appeals court in Texas ordered a stay on the execution of convicted rapist and murderer Robert Campbell. The judge gave him the chance of a fresh appeal telling his lawyers to validate Campbell's mental incompetency claims. Campbell's lawyers had argued that he had an IQ of 69. Minimum threshold IQ set by courts is 70 and a 2002 Supreme Court ruling states that mentally challenged inmates will not be put to death.
