Bucklew attorneys ask court to allow taping of execution

Attorneys for convicted murderer Russell Bucklew filed a motion in federal court Friday, seeking to videotape his execution.

Bucklew, 45, is scheduled for lethal injection at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.

Earlier this month, Bucklew's attorneys contacted the Missouri Department of Corrections, asking for permission to videotape his execution, but were told during a conference call DOC attorneys would not agree to the taping, the motion states.

"If the state is confident that its lethal injection procedures will be safe, effective and successful as applied to Mr. Bucklew, then officials should have no problem with documenting the execution," attorney Cheryl Pilate wrote in the motion.

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster filed an argument against the motion Friday, contending that videotaping Bucklew's execution "could lead us back to the days of executions as public spectacles"; that it is unnecessary because multiple witnesses, including members of the media, will see the execution; and that the videographer would see members of the execution team, whose identities are protected under Missouri law.

Bucklew was convicted in 1997 of shooting Michael Sanders to death in front of his two young sons, kidnapping Sanders' girlfriend, Stephanie Pruitt Ray, at gunpoint, raping her and holding her hostage before being apprehended in St. Louis.

After his arrest, Bucklew escaped from the Cape Girardeau County Jail and attacked Ray's mother and her fiance with a hammer before being recaptured.

The motion Friday follows one Pilate filed a week earlier in which she asked the federal court for a stay of execution so medical tests can be performed to determine whether Bucklew's condition is likely to cause him to bleed or choke during lethal injection.

Bucklew has a congenital disorder called cavernous hemangioma that causes large vascular tumors in his nose, mouth and airways.

Emory University medical professor Joel Zivot has filed affidavits in support of Pilate's earlier filing, saying Bucklew's tumors are likely to rupture during execution, causing him to choke to death on his own blood.

On Thursday, Koster submitted a response to the motion for stay of execution in which he noted Bucklew "delayed bringing his suit until two weeks before his scheduled execution even though he has known about his medical condition and his pending execution for years."

In his response, Koster also offered to eliminate the use of dyes in the saline solution used to flush intravenous lines before the lethal drugs are administered.

Zivot had suggested methylene blue, a chemical commonly used for that purpose, could raise Bucklew's blood pressure, causing his tumors to rupture.

In a sharply worded response filed Friday, Pilate rejected Koster's offer to eliminate the dyes, calling the last-minute change "evidence that DOC officials do not know what they are doing and are wholly unprepared to execute someone with serious medical problems like Mr. Bucklew."

Pilate also accused the state of failing to provide Bucklew with adequate medical care and regular testing, despite repeated requests for funds to do so.

"It is extremely disingenuous for the defendants to accuse Mr. Bucklew of dragging his feet on this grievance. ... Even though Mr. Bucklew was indigent and counsel made a prima facie showing that Missouri's execution protocol was at least constitutionally suspect, as applied to Mr. Bucklew, the State actively opposed Mr. Bucklew's efforts to obtain the funds necessary to secure an expert," Pilate wrote.

In the filing, Pilate cited several instances, beginning in June 2008, in which Bucklew's attorneys sought but were denied funds for expert services.

At this point, Bucklew's attorneys are paying out of their own pockets for medical records and other expenses, Pilate wrote.

"It is the imminence of the execution date and the urgency it imposes that has enabled counsel to persuade medical experts to assist them in this litigation," she wrote.

epriddy@semissourian.com

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