Catholic bishops ask Gov. Parson to halt execution, spare Bucklew's life

Missouri's Catholic bishops want Gov. Mike Parson to halt the scheduled execution of convicted murderer Russell Bucklew and reduce his sentence to life in prison.

Bishop Edward Rice of the Springfield-Cape Girardeau Diocese is one of four bishops who signed a publicly issued statement this week seeking to spare Bucklew's life.

Bucklew is scheduled to be executed on Oct. 1 for killing a man in Cape Girardeau County more than 23 years ago.

Gov. Parson's office did not respond by Wednesday afternoon to voice and email messages asking if he would agree to the bishops' request as well as seeking his position on the death penalty in general.

But as a state senator in 2016, Parson, a former sheriff, voiced support for the death penalty.

Pope Francis has called for the "global abolition of the death penalty," the bishops wrote.

"As Catholic bishops, we have consistently opposed the use of the death penalty. Evidence shows that the death penalty is often unfair and biased in its application," they wrote.

"By ending the use of the death penalty, we can hopefully begin to break the cycle of violence," the bishops added.

Bucklew's "particular medical situation warrants special consideration," the bishops wrote.

The ACLU, in a series of tweets, also called for Parson to grant clemency to Bucklew. The organization set up an online petition to "stop the torturous exeution of Rusty Bucklew." As of Wednesday afternoon, 43,000 people had supported the petition.

Bucklew's execution date has been set three times previously but halted over concerns about his medical condition. The condition, cavernous hemangioma, causes blood-filled tumors to grow in his head, neck and throat.

His attorney has said the tumors could burst during execution by lethal injection, causing him to choke on his own blood.

In March 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a stay of execution just before the lethal injection was set to begin. It was the second such stay issued by the high court on behalf of Bucklew in four years.

Swingle, who prosecuted Bucklew for killing a man in Cape Girardeau County in 1996 during a violent crime spree, was at the state prison to witness the execution. He told the Southeast Missourian last year he was frustrated at the high court's last-minute decision.

"It is just absurd that this guy is just too sick to kill," Swingle said at the time.

The U.S. Supreme Court, however, ruled in April 2018 the state could move ahead with the execution. The decision came on a 5-4 vote, with the court's five conservative justices rejecting Bucklew's argument subjecting him to lethal injection would violate the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

In June of this year, the Missouri Supreme Court set the new execution date.

Swingle, now a prosecutor for the city of St. Louis, plans to witness Bucklew's execution this fall.

"I have said before, Russell Bucklew is the most evil person I have ever prosecuted. If he doesn't deserve the death penalty, nobody does," Swingle said.

Bucklew fatally shot Michael Sanders on March 21, 1996 in Sanders' trailer where he lived with Bucklew's ex-girlfriend, Stephanie Ray.

Bucklew shot Sanders in front of Ray and Sanders' young sons, then kidnapped and raped Ray.

He was later captured after a shootout with state troopers.

Bucklew later escaped from the Cape Girardeau County Jail in Jackson and attacked Ray's mother with a hammer before being recaptured.

Swingle said Bucklew is "a coldblooded killer and I don't care one bit that he is sick; all the more reason to kill him quickly. He should have been killed 10 years ago."

The former Cape Girardeau County prosecutor said the death penalty won't deter killers like Charles Manson and Ted Bundy. But, he said, it can deter some people from committing murder.

Swingle said he once prosecuted a man who kidnapped, raped and sodomized a 5-year-old girl in Cape Girardeau County. The man admitted that he let the girl go — she was found wandering on a blacktop road — because he knew Missouri had the death penalty, Swingle said.

"I believe in cases like that, if it saves one child's life, it is worth having," Swingle said of the death penalty.