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Missouri Department of Corrections
Russell Bucklew argued that his state of health would render life by lethal injection extremely painful
The United States Supreme Court has declared that a convict for murder sentenced to death in Missouri was not entitled to a "pain-free death".
The ruling paves the way for the execution of Russell Bucklew, who asked for gasoline rather than lethal injection, citing an unusual state of health.
Bucklew, 50, said the state's preferred method was to ban "cruel and unusual punishment".
Decision 5-4 is divided along the ideological lines of the court.
Bucklew was sentenced to death in 1996 for rape, murder and kidnapping as part of an attack on his ex-girlfriend, his new partner and his six-year-old son.
In recent cases, Bucklew argued that his congenital condition, a cavernous hemangioma, could cause him excessive pain if he was put to death by lethal injection.
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Supreme Court of the United States: (Left Front) Stephen Breyer, Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Samuel Alito, Jr .; Neil Gorsuch, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Brett Kavanaugh
The disease causes tumors filled with blood in the throat, neck and face, which can break during execution, causing extreme pain and suffocation.
According to Bucklew, he would feel excessive pain if the state hangman was allowed to use the state's preferred method of using a single drug, pentobarbital, with the help of a needle.
But conservative Supreme Court justices said on Monday that they considered the legal effort as a stall tactic.
They stated that it was incumbent upon the prisoner to prove that another method of execution "would reduce a substantial risk of extreme suffering", but he had not done so yet.
Judge Neil Gorsuch, writing for the majority, noted that Bucklew had been on death row for more than 20 years.
"The eighth amendment [to the US constitution] forbids the "cruel and unusual" methods of capital punishment but does not guarantee a prisoner a painless death, "wrote Judge Gorsuch, appointed by President Donald Trump in 2017.
He continued: "As originally understood, the Eighth Amendment tolerated methods of execution, such as hanging, which implied a significant risk of suffering, while cruelly prohibiting methods that strengthened the death penalty by "superimposing" terror, pain or dishonor.
The Liberals on the ground, including Judge Stephen Breyer, argued that Bucklew 's state of health should have allowed him to be killed by nitrogen, a method allowed in three states.
"There are higher values than ensuring that executions take place on time," Judge Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a separate opinion, adding that the secret in the death penalty process had recently given different results in two similar cases.
- An American detainee executed in the middle of a row of imams
In one case in Alabama, it was forbidden for a Muslim man to have an imam with him during his execution, but the court suspended the application of the same sentence following a call. by a Buddhist who wanted his spiritual advisor to be present at the time of his killing.
In his majority opinion in the Bucklew case, Gorsuch J. referred to both cases, claiming that the inmate in Alabama had had sufficient time to express his complaint, but had chosen to do so only 15 days before the expected date of death.
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