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Constitutional Law Keyed to Choper
Bucklew v. Precythe
Citation:
587 U.S. ___ (2019)Facts
Russell Bucklew was convicted of murder, kidnapping, and rape in Missouri in 1996. He suffers from cavernous hemangioma, a rare medical condition causing vascular tumors to grow throughout his body, particularly in his head, neck, and oral cavity. These tumors obstruct his airway and are highly sensitive to touch, causing them to easily rupture and bleed. In 2014, shortly before his scheduled execution, Bucklew filed an as-applied Eighth Amendment challenge to Missouri’s lethal injection protocol, arguing that due to his condition, the pentobarbital would cause his tumors to rupture, leading him to choke on his own blood and experience excruciating pain before death. After extensive litigation, Bucklew eventually proposed nitrogen hypoxia as an alternative method of execution. His expert, Dr. Zivot, testified that lethal injection would cause Bucklew to experience prolonged feelings of suffocation, while the State’s expert, Dr. Antognini, testified that pentobarbital would render Bucklew unconscious within 20-30 seconds.
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