[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MISSOURI, USA

[Rick Halperin]

October 1




MISSOURI----execution

Former prosecutor says Russell Bucklew's death was a 'stark contrast' to that 
of his victim


The State of Missouri executed Russell Bucklew on Tuesday, 23 years after 
violent episodes left a man dead.

Bucklew was declared dead at 6:23 p.m. at Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and 
Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, after authorities administered a lethal 
dose of pentobarbital.

The Associated Press reported no outward signs of distress as he died and said 
Bucklew’s attorneys, Cheryl Pilate and Jeremy Weis, said Bucklew was remorseful 
for his crimes.

Former Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney H. Morley Swingle, who tried 
the case, said Bucklew did not appear in any pain.

“His death was gentle and painless. He just closed his eyes and went to sleep,” 
he said in a cellphone interview. “That is in stark contrast to the violent, 
brutal death he inflicted on Michael Sanders.”

In 1996, Bucklew shot and killed Michael Sanders, who at the time was living 
with Bucklew’s ex-girlfriend, Stephanie Pruitt Ray. He shot Sanders in front of 
Ray, her two daughters and Sanders’ two sons. Bucklew abducted Pruitt, taking 
her to a remote area and raping her. He fled to St. Louis, getting into a 
gunfight with a law enforcement officer. After being taken into custody, he 
escaped from jail and hid in the home of Ray’s mother, who he beat with a 
hammer.

Swingle did not mince words when he contrasted Bucklew’s execution with his 
crimes.

“Michael Sanders was on the ground begging for his life as Bucklew stood over 
him. You couldn’t have a bigger difference between that and the peaceful death 
he went through tonight,” he said.

Bucklew had been set for execution before, but because of a rare medical 
condition, cavernous hemangioma, his case bounced from court to court, 
ultimately landing in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, which stayed the 
execution twice before but ruled in April that Bucklew could be put to death. 
His attorneys had argued execution would be unconstitutional because of the 
blood-filled tumors in his head, neck and throat.

Swingle dismissed the concerns, saying Bucklew did not die a gruesome death as 
some had suggested. He added the U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged the Eighth 
Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment does not require a 
painless death.

“But it turned out to not be a painful death,” he said. “As I watched it, I was 
thinking this was the final chapter in a saga that lasted 23 years.”

Recently, Catholic bishops across the state and the American Civil Liberties 
Union lobbied on behalf of leniency for Bucklew. Gov. Mike Parson announced 
Tuesday morning he would not stop the execution.

Russell Bucklew timeline

* April 1997: A Boone County, Missouri, jury, on a change of venue, convicted 
Russell Bucklew of rape, kidnapping, murder, burglary and armed criminal 
action. He was found guilty of kidnapping his ex-girlfriend, Stephanie Pruitt 
Ray, at gunpoint minutes after he shot and killed Michael H. Sanders, Ray’s new 
boyfriend, in March 1996 in Cape Girardeau County.

* May 1997: Sentenced to death

* 1998: Missouri Supreme Court upholds Bucklew’s conviction and death sentence, 
but execution stayed while he sought review in state and federal courts.

* May 2014: The U.S. Supreme Court halted his execution within hours of the 
scheduled time and sent the case back to a lower federal court amid concerns 
about Bucklew’s medical condition. The condition, cavernous hemangioma, causes 
blood-filled tumors to grow in his head, neck and throat.

* 2015: Attorneys for Bucklew suggest a firing squad would be a better method 
of carrying out the death sentence.

* March 2018: U.S. Supreme Court grants second stay of execution just before 
lethal injection was set to begin.

* April 2019: The U.S. Supreme Court rules the state could move ahead with the 
execution. The decision came on a 5-4 vote, with the court’s five conservative 
justices rejecting Bucklew’s argument subjecting him to lethal injection would 
violate the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The opinion, 
written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, said the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and 
unusual punishment “does not guarantee a painless death.”

* February 2019: Zach Sanders wants Bucklew, his father’s killer, and other 
Missouri death-row inmates to be allowed to donate organs for transplant and/or 
their bodies for science

* June 2019: Missouri Supreme Court sets Oct. 1 execution date

* September 2019: Missouri’s Catholic bishops and the American Civil Liberties 
Union ask Gov. Mike Parson to halt the scheduled execution and reduce Bucklew’s 
sentence to life in prison. Attorneys for Bucklew say the tracheostomy tube he 
relies on to breathe increases the risk of a “grotesque execution process” if 
he is put to death.

* Oct. 1: Bucklew executed, more than 23 years after he committed the murder.

Bucklew becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
Missouri and the 89th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 
1989.  Only Texas (565), Virginia (113), Oklahoma (112) and Florida (99) have 
carried out more executions than Missouri since the death penalty was 
re-legalized in the United States on July 2, 1976.

Bucklew becomes the 17th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
the USA and the 1,507th overall since the nation resumed executions on
January 17, 1977.

There are currently 3 more executions scheduled in October (all in Texas), 5 in 
November and 6 in December. The nation carried out 25 executions in 2018.

(source: SE Missourian & Rick Halperin)






USA:




USA----impending/scheduled executions

With the execution of Russell Bucklew in Missouri on October 1, the USA
has now executed 1,507 condemned individuals since the death penalty was
re-legalized on July 2, 1976 in the US Supreme Court Gregg v Georgia
decision.

Gary Gilmore was the 1st person executed, in Utah, on January 17, 1977. Below
is a list of further scheduled executions as the nation continues its shameful
practice of state-sponsored killings.


NOTE: The list is likely to change over the coming months as new execution
dates are added and possible stays of execution occur.




1508-------Oct. 10------------Randy Halprin------------Texas

1509-------Oct. 16------------Randall Mays-------------Texas

1510-------Oct. 30------------Ruben Gutierrez----------Texas

1511-------Nov. 3-9-----------Charles Rhines-----------South Dakota

1512-------Nov. 6-------------Justen Hall--------------Texas

1513-------Nov. 7-------------James Dailey-------------Florida

1514-------Nov. 13------------Patrick Murphy-----------Texas

1515-------Nov. 20------------Rodney Reed--------------Texas

1516-------Dec. 5-------------Lee Hall Jr.-------------Tennessee

1517-------Dec. 9-------------Daniel Lewis Lee---------Federal - Ark.

1518-------Dec. 11------------James Hanna--------------Ohio

1519-------Dec. 11------------Travis Runnels-----------Texas

1520-------Dec. 11------------Lezmond Mitchell---------Federal - Ariz.

1521-------Dec. 13------------Wesley Purkey------------Federal - Mo.

1522-------Jan. 13-----------Alfred Bourgeois----------Federal - Tex.

1523-------Jan. 15-----------Dusten Honken-------------Federal - Iowa

1524-------Jan. 15-----------John Gardner--------------Texas

1525-------Jan. 16-----------Kareem Jackson------------Ohio

1526-------Mar. 11-----------Carlos Trevino------------Texas

(source: Rick Halperin)