Supreme Court stays Missouri death row inmate’s execution

By Lawrence Hurley and Brendan O'Brien (Reuters) – The Supreme Court issued a new stay on Wednesday to halt the execution of a Missouri death row inmate because his lawyers say he suffers from a rare health condition that could lead to undue suffering from a lethal injection. Convicted rapist and murderer Russell Bucklew had been scheduled to be put to death early on Wednesday before a series of court decisions delayed the execution. Although the high court on Wednesday lifted an earlier stay that Justice Samuel Alito had granted on Tuesday night, it issued a new one that will remain in effect until Bucklew's new appeal is heard by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The legal issue at hand is whether lethal injection would constitute cruel and unusual punishment under the 8th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution because of Bucklew's health condition, called cavernous hemangioma Bucklew's lawyers say that malformed blood vessels in his head and neck could rupture under stress, causing the drugs administered during execution to circulate improperly and cause undue suffering.