Russell Bucklew walked out on Stephanie Ray on Valentine’s Day 1996 to go live with his parents.
Then 20 days later Bucklew returned to the trailer in rural Missouri he had shared with Ray and found Michael Sanders there. He concluded Sanders and Ray were romantically involved. He placed a knife to Sanders’ neck telling him he’d kill him if he ever returned to Ray’s trailer.
Bucklew returned later that night, pulled out a knife, cut Ray’s jaw and punched her in the face.
The next day Bucklew called her at work threatening to kill her as well as her children if she ever saw Sanders again. Fearing for her safety, Ray moved in with Sanders.
Next Bucklew stole two of his brother’s pistols as well as two sets of handcuffs, stole his nephew’s car, and took a roll of duct tape.
He followed Ray to Sanders’ trailer when she left work.
Bucklew knocked on the door, was let into the trailer by a kid, and proceeded to pump two bullets into Sanders with one bullet tearing through his lung. He stepped up to where he fell and pointed a gun at his head ready to put another bullet into him when he saw Sanders’ 6-year-old  son and shot at him instead, fortunately missing him.
He then struck Ray in the face, handcuffed her, dragged her to the car, demanded sex and when she wouldn’t oblige he raped her. Law enforcement officers were able to apprehend Bucklew after a gunfight and before he had a chance to kill Ray. Before his trial, Bucklew escaped from jail and instead of fleeing he went to the home of Ray’s mother and beat her with a hammer. He was convicted of murder, kidnapping, and rape.
So why am I telling you this?
Bucklew was scheduled to die this evening — 22 years to the day after he killed Sanders — before getting his second stay of execution.
His lawyers are trying to block his lethal injection saying he potentially faces a “gruesome and painful” execution due to a rare condition that compromises his veins plus causes multiple tumors in his neck and brain.
To quote his lawyer Cheryl Pilate: “Mr. Bucklew’s rare and severe condition creates a very substantial risk execution, with choking and gagging on blood and the infliction of excruciating pain.”
Am I missing something? Bucklew took it upon himself to execute Sanders with a bullet that ripped through his lung filling it with blood. I’m sure it was an excruciating and painful death made worse by the fact Sanders not only saw Bucklew try to kill his 6-year-old so but also strike and kidnap Ray.
So what if Bucklew is in pain when he dies? He certainly didn’t care if Sanders was in pain.
It matters now because Bucklew doesn’t want to die. I’m sure Sanders didn’t want to die either but Bucklew made sure he had no choice. And unlike the State of Missouri that gave Buckley 22 years of breathing, Buckley gave Sanders just mere seconds and then left him to slowly die in excruciating pain by bleeding out.
The State of Missouri is not plotting to kill Bucklew as some death penalty opponents would argue. When you plot to kill somebody you do what Buckley did — you don’t worry about their constitutional rights, you hatch a plan, get the needed weapons to kill, make sure you have a car to get away and only worry about your own sadistic needs and not that of your victims.
As for his lawyer’s argument his execution with troublesome veins will constitute cruel and unusual punishment, isn’t that the very definition of first degree murder? That said the state’s system of laws and justice are measured. People argue that intentionally taking another’s life isn’t civilized and I agree. That’s why such a crime against civilization when it meets the high threshold of being premeditated must have a punishment that matches it.
When a rabid dog kills we don’t lock it up. We put it to sleep.
Go back to the top of the column. Read again what Bucklew did. Don’t forget the part about escaping from jail so he could attack Ray’s mother with a hammer in her own home.
Should such an animal be turned loose on society or locked behind bars getting three “hots and a cot” plus all of the medical treatment needed for his rare disease so he can live until he dies of natural causes?
The $80,000 or so a year it takes to warehouse a death row inmate takes money away from other pressing needs such as hungry children. Yes, we can reduce his sentence to life supposedly without parole but it will still cost significant money to warehouse him. There’s no absolute guarantee he won’t kill again either by the system magically coming up with a way to make a mockery of the concept of life without parole, escaping, or killing an inmate whose crimes didn’t rise to his level. There’s only one sure way to guarantee Bucklew doesn’t kill again and that’s by the State of Missouri executing him.
As for tears, if you have them save them for Michael Sanders and his children who 22 years ago watched in unimaginable  horror and excruciating fear as a self-righteous rabid animal that is now arguing the taking of his life would constitute cruel and inhuman punishment had no qualms playing judge, jury, prosecutor and executioner.