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| Rusty Bucklew awaits execution in Missouri: 'Are they gonna screw it up?' | Rusty Bucklew awaits execution in Missouri: 'Are they gonna screw it up?' |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| Rusty Bucklew did something terrible. In March 1996, he drove to the mobile home in southern Missouri where his ex-girlfriend Stephanie Pruitt was staying with her new partner, Michael Sanders. He shot Sanders dead and kidnapped Pruitt, leaving their four young children behind. Over five hours, he raped Pruitt, handcuffed her, and took her on a terrifying car journey, boasting that he would go down in a “blaze of glory”. The ride turned into a high-speed chase with police, which turned into a shootout. After being shot and wounded, Bucklew was arrested. | Rusty Bucklew did something terrible. In March 1996, he drove to the mobile home in southern Missouri where his ex-girlfriend Stephanie Pruitt was staying with her new partner, Michael Sanders. He shot Sanders dead and kidnapped Pruitt, leaving their four young children behind. Over five hours, he raped Pruitt, handcuffed her, and took her on a terrifying car journey, boasting that he would go down in a “blaze of glory”. The ride turned into a high-speed chase with police, which turned into a shootout. After being shot and wounded, Bucklew was arrested. |
| On Wednesday, exactly 18 years and two months later, the state of Missouri is scheduled to exact a dreadful revenge. If his attorneys’ final appeals fail, like the ones that they have filed before, Bucklew will be killed by a lethal injection delivered one minute after midnight at a state prison in Bonne Terre, about 90 miles north-west from the trailer park where he killed Sanders. | On Wednesday, exactly 18 years and two months later, the state of Missouri is scheduled to exact a dreadful revenge. If his attorneys’ final appeals fail, like the ones that they have filed before, Bucklew will be killed by a lethal injection delivered one minute after midnight at a state prison in Bonne Terre, about 90 miles north-west from the trailer park where he killed Sanders. |
| Now 45 years old, Bucklew is remorseful about the murder. “I shot the guy, and I killed him, and for that I am truly sorry,” he said over the phone from prison. He knows, however, that no apology can save him from the gurney and the government’s needle. Sometimes he even thinks that he is ready to die. “I’ve been doing time here for 18 years,” he said. “I’m tired, man.” | Now 45 years old, Bucklew is remorseful about the murder. “I shot the guy, and I killed him, and for that I am truly sorry,” he said over the phone from prison. He knows, however, that no apology can save him from the gurney and the government’s needle. Sometimes he even thinks that he is ready to die. “I’ve been doing time here for 18 years,” he said. “I’m tired, man.” |
| But he hopes that it might be done quickly. Less than a month after the secrecy-veiled botched execution of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma, the Missouri corrections authorities are likewise refusing to say precisely what they plan to use to kill Bucklew, or where they obtained it. “It scares me,” he said. | But he hopes that it might be done quickly. Less than a month after the secrecy-veiled botched execution of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma, the Missouri corrections authorities are likewise refusing to say precisely what they plan to use to kill Bucklew, or where they obtained it. “It scares me,” he said. |
| 'I'm the next guy up – am I gonna get all screwed up here?' | 'I'm the next guy up – am I gonna get all screwed up here?' |
| Bucklew's execution is pending as Missouri faces a new legal challenge brought by the Guardian, Associated Press and the state's three largest local newspapers over the secrecy it has imposed on its lethal injection procedures. In a complaint lodged on Thursday with the circuit court of Cole County, covering the state capital Jefferson City, the news outlets argue that the refusal of the prison service to disclose the type, quality and source of the drugs it uses in executions is a violation of the first amendment right to public access to government practices. | Bucklew's execution is pending as Missouri faces a new legal challenge brought by the Guardian, Associated Press and the state's three largest local newspapers over the secrecy it has imposed on its lethal injection procedures. In a complaint lodged on Thursday with the circuit court of Cole County, covering the state capital Jefferson City, the news outlets argue that the refusal of the prison service to disclose the type, quality and source of the drugs it uses in executions is a violation of the first amendment right to public access to government practices. |
| A week from execution day, Bucklew is taking narcotic pain medication three or four times a day. He's being held in almost total isolation, with any visits conducted through glass. For 10 days recently he was prevented from having any contact with the outside world other than his lawyers. | A week from execution day, Bucklew is taking narcotic pain medication three or four times a day. He's being held in almost total isolation, with any visits conducted through glass. For 10 days recently he was prevented from having any contact with the outside world other than his lawyers. |
| Bucklew’s attorneys say that he has more reason than most to be fearful. Cavernous hemangioma, a medical condition with which he has suffered from birth, makes clumps of malformed blood vessels grow in his head. Seeking an injunction on the execution, his attorneys said in a court filing last week that a “massive” tumour had taken over much of Bucklew’s nose, throat and airway. | Bucklew’s attorneys say that he has more reason than most to be fearful. Cavernous hemangioma, a medical condition with which he has suffered from birth, makes clumps of malformed blood vessels grow in his head. Seeking an injunction on the execution, his attorneys said in a court filing last week that a “massive” tumour had taken over much of Bucklew’s nose, throat and airway. |
| “He haemorrhages on a regular basis, and sometimes experiences a major rupture with extensive bleeding,” they wrote. The attorneys argued that the condition could mean that the lethal injection does not circulate properly, causing him “excruciating, even tortuous pain” and inflicting a “cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the eighth amendment”. | “He haemorrhages on a regular basis, and sometimes experiences a major rupture with extensive bleeding,” they wrote. The attorneys argued that the condition could mean that the lethal injection does not circulate properly, causing him “excruciating, even tortuous pain” and inflicting a “cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the eighth amendment”. |
| He says he is already in constant discomfort. “It's like a toothache right now, and it will turn into like getting a fork stuck on a filling,” he said. “Then it will turn into a brain freeze, and then a throbbing.” The potential for one, final excruciating burst of pain fills him with dread. “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?” | He says he is already in constant discomfort. “It's like a toothache right now, and it will turn into like getting a fork stuck on a filling,” he said. “Then it will turn into a brain freeze, and then a throbbing.” The potential for one, final excruciating burst of pain fills him with dread. “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?” |
| He also feels horrible about the final image with which his family could be left. “If I have to choke and gag, and all that, that’s going to be painful,” he said. “But what else is going to be painful is my brothers and my friend are going to have to watch that. How much pain is that going to put them through?” | He also feels horrible about the final image with which his family could be left. “If I have to choke and gag, and all that, that’s going to be painful,” he said. “But what else is going to be painful is my brothers and my friend are going to have to watch that. How much pain is that going to put them through?” |
| On Friday Bucklew’s lawyers filed a court motion to compel the department of corrections to allow his execution to be filmed on video tape should it go ahead on 21 May. One of the lawyers, Cheryl Pilate said: “If Missouri officials are confident enough to execute Russell Bucklew, they should be confident enough to videotape. It is time to raise the curtain on lethal injections.” | |
| Bucklew would at least like to know exactly what the state plans to inject him with, and where it came from. Missouri’s execution protocol calls for Bucklew to be injected with pentobarbital, a barbiturate that is also used to euthanise animals, by a non-medical official. A medic will then check whether or not he is dead. If he is still alive, the non-medical official will then inject him with another dose. | |
| Since the Danish manufacturer of pentobarbital and its US licensee cut off supplies to American states that were using the drug for executions, authorities have been buying mixtures from secretive and makeshift compounding pharmacies that are not approved by federal regulators. They are dismissed by Bucklew, with perhaps understandable exaggeration, as “a meth cook in their backyard”. Missouri last year amended its rules on executions to classify these compounding pharmacies as part of its execution teams, meaning that their identities were shielded from public disclosure. | Since the Danish manufacturer of pentobarbital and its US licensee cut off supplies to American states that were using the drug for executions, authorities have been buying mixtures from secretive and makeshift compounding pharmacies that are not approved by federal regulators. They are dismissed by Bucklew, with perhaps understandable exaggeration, as “a meth cook in their backyard”. Missouri last year amended its rules on executions to classify these compounding pharmacies as part of its execution teams, meaning that their identities were shielded from public disclosure. |
| 'He needs to know how he is going to be killed' | 'He needs to know how he is going to be killed' |
| In two scathing minority opinions on appeals from death-row inmates, Kermit Bye, an appeals court judge in Missouri, has sharply criticised the growing secrecy around executions. Describing transparency around the process as “fundamentally important” to analyses of an execution’s constitutionality, Bye accused Missouri of hiding “behind the hangman’s cloak”. He wrote in the first opinion: “The ‘pharmacy’ on which Missouri relies could be nothing more than a high school chemistry class.” Three US supreme court justices joined the dissent. | In two scathing minority opinions on appeals from death-row inmates, Kermit Bye, an appeals court judge in Missouri, has sharply criticised the growing secrecy around executions. Describing transparency around the process as “fundamentally important” to analyses of an execution’s constitutionality, Bye accused Missouri of hiding “behind the hangman’s cloak”. He wrote in the first opinion: “The ‘pharmacy’ on which Missouri relies could be nothing more than a high school chemistry class.” Three US supreme court justices joined the dissent. |
| Richard Dieter, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, described rules such as Missouri’s as a “distortion” of the principle of anonymity for executioners. “There is a fundamental principle at stake,” said Dieter. “Due process means that a person who is going to be killed by the state has the right to challenge that. And to do so, he needs to know how he is going to be killed … in a democracy, this is how the people are meant to check on what their government is doing.” | Richard Dieter, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, described rules such as Missouri’s as a “distortion” of the principle of anonymity for executioners. “There is a fundamental principle at stake,” said Dieter. “Due process means that a person who is going to be killed by the state has the right to challenge that. And to do so, he needs to know how he is going to be killed … in a democracy, this is how the people are meant to check on what their government is doing.” |
| Serious problems have emerged from these enforced shadows. When Eric Robert was executed with a dose of pentobarbital by South Dakota last October, witnesses said that his eyes stayed open and he gasped repeatedly while taking 20 minutes to die. An analysis later found that the drug, which was made to order by a compounding pharmacy, had been contaminated by fungus. When Michael Lee Wilson received a deadly dose of pentobarbital in Oklahoma in January, he responded with the now-notorious cry: “I feel my whole body burning.” | Serious problems have emerged from these enforced shadows. When Eric Robert was executed with a dose of pentobarbital by South Dakota last October, witnesses said that his eyes stayed open and he gasped repeatedly while taking 20 minutes to die. An analysis later found that the drug, which was made to order by a compounding pharmacy, had been contaminated by fungus. When Michael Lee Wilson received a deadly dose of pentobarbital in Oklahoma in January, he responded with the now-notorious cry: “I feel my whole body burning.” |
| Bucklew wants Missouri to be transparent about its supplier. Anything less amounts to “deceiving the public”, he said. “If you don't have nothing to hide, then you put it out in the open. It's that simple. So [if you don’t], you're hiding something. That’s the way I look at it … my experience is either: tell it the way it is, or you're a liar. And here the United States is a liar.” | Bucklew wants Missouri to be transparent about its supplier. Anything less amounts to “deceiving the public”, he said. “If you don't have nothing to hide, then you put it out in the open. It's that simple. So [if you don’t], you're hiding something. That’s the way I look at it … my experience is either: tell it the way it is, or you're a liar. And here the United States is a liar.” |
| For Dieter, following Lockett’s ordeal in Oklahoma, “the burden has shifted to the states” to prove that such secrecy laws can be justified. He said: “They assured us that they could be trusted, and that everything was fine with these drugs. That did not turn out to be the case.” | For Dieter, following Lockett’s ordeal in Oklahoma, “the burden has shifted to the states” to prove that such secrecy laws can be justified. He said: “They assured us that they could be trusted, and that everything was fine with these drugs. That did not turn out to be the case.” |
| Morley Swingle, however, does not care. Now an attorney practising in Colorado, Swingle was the county prosecutor who took Bucklew to trial for murder. “I was a prosecutor for 30 years and he was the most evil person I ever prosecuted,” said Swingle. “He was a pure sociopath with no regard for other people.” Bucklew violently attacked Pruitt weeks before the day of the killing, Swingle pointed out, and later attacked her parents with a hammer after briefly escaping from the county jail three months after his arrest. “He was a homicidal Energiser Bunny,” said Swingle. “You could shoot him, you could jail him, but if he wanted to kill you he was still going to come after you if he could.” | Morley Swingle, however, does not care. Now an attorney practising in Colorado, Swingle was the county prosecutor who took Bucklew to trial for murder. “I was a prosecutor for 30 years and he was the most evil person I ever prosecuted,” said Swingle. “He was a pure sociopath with no regard for other people.” Bucklew violently attacked Pruitt weeks before the day of the killing, Swingle pointed out, and later attacked her parents with a hammer after briefly escaping from the county jail three months after his arrest. “He was a homicidal Energiser Bunny,” said Swingle. “You could shoot him, you could jail him, but if he wanted to kill you he was still going to come after you if he could.” |
| The former prosecutor dismisses the pleas from Bucklew’s lawyers. “It’s a bunch of hogwash to think that his medical condition is going to cause him any more pain than anybody else,” he claimed. “They’re going to give him poison and he’s going to die. It’s going to be that simple.” Swingle went on: “I don’t think you want to torture the person just because he tortured other people himself. But I think defence lawyers are paid to look for excuses, and they’re trying to find excuses to delay the execution, and it’s just silly.” | The former prosecutor dismisses the pleas from Bucklew’s lawyers. “It’s a bunch of hogwash to think that his medical condition is going to cause him any more pain than anybody else,” he claimed. “They’re going to give him poison and he’s going to die. It’s going to be that simple.” Swingle went on: “I don’t think you want to torture the person just because he tortured other people himself. But I think defence lawyers are paid to look for excuses, and they’re trying to find excuses to delay the execution, and it’s just silly.” |
| Pruitt, who was just 21 when kidnapped by Bucklew, once promised that she would attend his execution to ensure that her face was the last thing he saw, said Swingle. Before she got that opportunity, however, she was shot dead in 2009 by her estranged husband, who promptly killed himself as well. “She had a horrible taste in men, or was incredibly unlucky,” said Swingle. | Pruitt, who was just 21 when kidnapped by Bucklew, once promised that she would attend his execution to ensure that her face was the last thing he saw, said Swingle. Before she got that opportunity, however, she was shot dead in 2009 by her estranged husband, who promptly killed himself as well. “She had a horrible taste in men, or was incredibly unlucky,” said Swingle. |
| His final days | His final days |
| It does not count for much, but Bucklew insists that he has changed. “I'm not the same person I was 18 years ago,” he said. Describing his 27-year-old self as a “dumb kid”, he says that he has since learned that “with age comes wisdom”. He is now into meditation, and says that he would do anything to get out: “I'll take intensive therapy, I’ll do whatever.” He worries constantly about his elderly parents, and wishes that he could help his father, who is 88, take care of his mother, who is 86 and recovering from surgery. He is anxious about what the execution may do to them. “It’s going to end up killing my mom and dad, and it’s going to be my fault,” he said. “I killed Michael Sanders, but I'm killing my mother and father, too.” | It does not count for much, but Bucklew insists that he has changed. “I'm not the same person I was 18 years ago,” he said. Describing his 27-year-old self as a “dumb kid”, he says that he has since learned that “with age comes wisdom”. He is now into meditation, and says that he would do anything to get out: “I'll take intensive therapy, I’ll do whatever.” He worries constantly about his elderly parents, and wishes that he could help his father, who is 88, take care of his mother, who is 86 and recovering from surgery. He is anxious about what the execution may do to them. “It’s going to end up killing my mom and dad, and it’s going to be my fault,” he said. “I killed Michael Sanders, but I'm killing my mother and father, too.” |
| Bucklew rises early for these final days. First he checks for any scheduled visits and phone calls. Then he may eat a honey bun with a cup of coffee, which he is not supposed to drink because of his anxiety. “I can’t help it,” he said. If he takes a stroll around the concrete-walled yard, this will be followed by the consumption of his medications – Tramadol and Neurontin for pain, and Klonopin and Vistaril for anxiety and related conditions. He frequently skips lunch, such as today’s offering of meat salad, and preferred to make his own meals before the prison staff revoked his Crock-Pot. “Is haggis good?” he asked, curious about British cuisine. “I might order that as my last meal. You never know.” | Bucklew rises early for these final days. First he checks for any scheduled visits and phone calls. Then he may eat a honey bun with a cup of coffee, which he is not supposed to drink because of his anxiety. “I can’t help it,” he said. If he takes a stroll around the concrete-walled yard, this will be followed by the consumption of his medications – Tramadol and Neurontin for pain, and Klonopin and Vistaril for anxiety and related conditions. He frequently skips lunch, such as today’s offering of meat salad, and preferred to make his own meals before the prison staff revoked his Crock-Pot. “Is haggis good?” he asked, curious about British cuisine. “I might order that as my last meal. You never know.” |
| He wishes that he could smoke one last time. “I'm like, if there’s any time for a person to have a cigarette, it is now,” he said. Instead, he spends most of his spare time reading, watching television and listening to music. His favourite book is The Poetic Edda, a landmark collection of Old Norse poetry. He watches hours upon hours of Real Housewives of Orange County, Ultimate Fighting Championship and NCIS on a television in his cell. And when it comes to music, he said, “I really dig Lorde – she kicks ass.” | He wishes that he could smoke one last time. “I'm like, if there’s any time for a person to have a cigarette, it is now,” he said. Instead, he spends most of his spare time reading, watching television and listening to music. His favourite book is The Poetic Edda, a landmark collection of Old Norse poetry. He watches hours upon hours of Real Housewives of Orange County, Ultimate Fighting Championship and NCIS on a television in his cell. And when it comes to music, he said, “I really dig Lorde – she kicks ass.” |
| With that, he began playing A World Alone, the closing track to the teenage New Zealander’s debut album, Pure Heroine, down the telephone. “One day the blood won't flow so gladly,” she sings at one point. “One day we'll all get still.” | With that, he began playing A World Alone, the closing track to the teenage New Zealander’s debut album, Pure Heroine, down the telephone. “One day the blood won't flow so gladly,” she sings at one point. “One day we'll all get still.” |