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The United States Supreme Court on Monday sentenced a death row inmate to a rare disease on Missouri's death row, setting the stage for his execution by lethal injection.
The court split 5-4 according to ideological criteria by upholding a decision of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals. The judges ruled that inmate Russell Bucklew had not presented evidence that an alternative to the state's lethal injection protocol would reduce his risk of pain.
Judge Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority and the other four conservative judges joined him.
"[H]Ultimately, the lawsuit is little more than an attack on an established precedent, lacking sufficient evidence to survive a summary judgment – not just one but many legal elements. essential in our jurisprudence and required by the primary meaning of the Constitution, "Gorsuch wrote. "The people of Missouri, the surviving victims of Mr. Bucklew's crimes, and others like them, deserve better."
Gorsuch noted that Bucklew committed his crimes more than 20 years ago and had "managed to obtain a delay through prosecution after prosecution".
But Judge Stephen Breyer, an opponent declared death sentence, wrote in his dissent that "the execution of Bucklew by lethal injection may subject him to constitutionally inadmissible suffering".
"[T]his case adds to the growing evidence that we can either have a death sentence that avoids excessive delays and "would serve legitimate penological purposes", or we can have a death sentence that "seeks reliability and freedom". equity in the application of the death penalty "and avoids inflicting cruel and unusual punishment," wrote Breyer. "It may well be that" we can not have both "."
Bucklew, 50, was convicted of first degree murder, kidnapping, rape and other crimes in 1998 and sentenced to death.
He was to die by lethal injection in March 2018, but since he was suffering from a rare medical disorder, Bucklew's lawyers claimed that his illness would lead him to feel "the excruciating pain of prolonged suffocation" while following the Missouri Injury Protocol, in violation of the Eighth Amendment.
The disease state, cavernous hemangioma, causes the growth of tumors filled with blood in Bucklew's head, neck and throat, which can rupture and bleed. If he actually receives Missouri's lethal injection method, Bucklew will likely have trouble breathing throughout the procedure, which will cause the rupture of a throat tumor.
His lawyers said his mouth and airways would fill with blood later, forcing him to "choke and cough" with his own blood throughout the process.
Rather than undergoing Missouri's deadly injection protocol, Bucklew proposed death by lethal gas.
But a panel of three judges of the 8th Circuit Appellate Court ruled that the lethal injection execution was not considered cruel and unusual because Bucklew was not showing that a method alternative would reduce the risk of unnecessary suffering.
The Supreme Court suspended Bucklew's execution in July and decided to hear Bucklew's appeal in August. Judge Anthony Kennedy, who retired last summer, has partnered with the Liberal wing of the court to block execution.
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