Bucklew execution called into question

Less than a month before the scheduled execution of a Cape Girardeau man, a botched lethal injection in Oklahoma has raised new concerns about the practice.

Russell Bucklew, 45, is slated for execution May 21 for the 1996 murder of Michael Sanders, a Cape Girardeau County man with whom Bucklew's ex-girlfriend had been staying.

Nanci Gonder, a spokeswoman for Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster, emphasized Wednesday that Missouri and Oklahoma handle their executions differently.

"In Missouri, a board-certified anesthesiologist and an I.V.-certified nurse are part of the execution team and establish the I.V. line by which the chemical is administered," Gonder wrote in an email message. "Missouri uses a single chemical, pentobarbital, which is not any part of the three-chemical combination used by Oklahoma."

On Tuesday, authorities in Oklahoma halted the execution of 38-year-old Clayton Lockett when he began regaining consciousness a few minutes after being injected with a drug that initially appeared to knock him out. The drug was the first of three authorities intended to administer to Lockett, who was convicted of shooting a woman and watching as two accomplices buried her alive.

Lockett died of a heart attack more than 40 minutes after the injection.

In the wake of Lockett's death, Bucklew's attorney, Cheryl Pilate, told The Associated Press she plans to file new appeals next week seeking to halt his execution or postpone it until the state's procedures and protocol "are subject to full disclosure."

Missouri and Oklahoma are among several states that refuse to release the name of the supplier of their execution drugs or whether those drugs have been tested.

The potential for something to go wrong is escalated for Bucklew, Pilate said, because he suffers from a lifelong medical condition that has left his blood vessels so malformed and weakened that he often bleeds from the eyes.

"Executions are not medical acts," Pilate said. "They are experiments conducted on human subjects with no accountability or oversight."

Bucklew's execution already has been delayed several times, partly by appeals and partly by issues surrounding the drugs used for lethal injections.

Bucklew's ex-girlfriend, Stephanie Ray Pruitt, had been staying with Sanders, whom she knew from work, in an effort to avoid Bucklew after he tied her to a bed and put a knife to her throat, then-prosecutor Morley Swingle has said.

In an April 9 telephone interview with the Southeast Missourian, Swingle -- who now works as a defense attorney in Colorado -- said he was "delighted" Bucklew finally had an execution date, calling him "the most evil person I've ever prosecuted."

"If the execution is carried out on May 21, the world will be a bit safer place on May 22," Swingle said.

Bucklew followed Pruitt home from work and shot Sanders to death in front of his children before pistol-whipping Pruitt, abducting her and raping her, Swingle said.

Bucklew then took Pruitt to St. Louis, playing the Bon Jovi song "Blaze of Glory" on his car stereo on the way and telling her he planned to "go down in a blaze of glory in a shootout with police," Swingle said.

A state trooper spotted Bucklew on Interstate 55, officers set up a rolling roadblock, and Bucklew exchanged gunfire with a trooper before being struck in the head by a bullet, Swingle said.

After being treated at a St. Louis hospital, Bucklew was taken to the Cape Girardeau County Jail, where he escaped in a trash bag and attacked Pruitt's mother with a hammer before being rearrested, Swingle said.

"In my closing arguments, I referred to him as a homicidal Energizer Bunny, because you could shoot him, jail him, and if he hates you and wants to hurt you, he'll just keep coming after you," Swingle said.

Ansley Channing, a spokeswoman for Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, said in an email to The Associated Press that Missouri's protocol has been upheld by the courts, and Nixon continues to support "the ultimate punishment" for the "most merciless and violent crimes."

The Associated Press contributed some information for this story.

epriddy@semissourian.com

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