JURY ACTS SWIFTLY IN CAPITAL CASE, IMPOSES DEATH PENALTY

It took a Boone County jury less than two hours to find Russell E. Bucklew guilty of first-degree murder and just three hours and 40 minutes to decide he deserves the death penalty.

The jury reached those verdicts after hearing less than four days of testimony in his trial, which was held week before last in Columbia on a change of venue from Cape Girardeau County.

Granted, a preponderance of evidence pointing to Bucklew's guilt helped speed up the proceeding. That evidence included a videotaped confession by Bucklew, which the jury saw, and the defense's agreement that Bucklew fatally shot Michael Sanders in his rural mobile home on March 21, 1996.

But the trial proves that unlike so many high-profile cases -- the O.J. Simpson criminal trial and the upcoming trial of Oklahoma City federal-building bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh readily come to mind -- justice can still be dealt swiftly.

There was little doubt in the jurors' minds that Bucklew killed Sanders; the question was whether it constituted first-degree murder, which can carry the death penalty.

Cape Girardeau County's prosecuting attorney, Morley Swingle, presented a convincing case for death. Swingle favors the death penalty and recently dropped membership in the American Bar Association because it changed its stance on capital punishment.

In closing arguments, the prosecutor gave the jury a list of 24 facts of deliberation, which he said proved that Bucklew acted with coolness and deliberation, a requirement for a first-degree-murder finding. The list included that Bucklew wrote his will three days prior; that he stalked his ex-girlfriend, Stephanie Ray; that he fired four shots at Sanders; and gave the videotaped confession.

Early in the prosecution's case, Sanders' 7-year-old son described his father's killing in chilling testimony. The boy witnessed the shooting along with another of the victim's son's, Ray and her two daughters.

The jury had little difficulty in determining Bucklew's fate because police and the prosecution did a good job of establishing a first-degree-murder case against him. And the jury followed through.

Jury duty is a necessary but difficult task. In this case, the Boone County jury exemplified how the system can work in dealing with men like Bucklew in a precipitous manner.