Execution date set for killer from Cape Girardeau

russell-bucklew

Russell Bucklew
Vinelink

Russell Bucklew, 49, is scheduled to die by injection Tuesday evening for killing a former girlfriend’s new boyfriend in 1996 in Southeast Missouri.

Bucklew was moments away from execution in May 2014 when the U.S. Supreme Court halted it amid concerns about Bucklew’s medical condition. He suffers from a rare ailment that causes weakened and malformed blood vessels, as well as blood-filled tumors in his nose and throat.

A panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals already has refused to stop the execution.

An appeal and stay request is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court and Bucklew’s attorneys have asked for clemency from Gov. Eric Greitens.

Bucklew was angry at Stephanie Ray his ex-girlfriend for leaving him and moving in with Michael Sanders of Cape Girardeau when he tracked her down at Sanders’ home in March 1996. He killed Sanders in front of the woman, her two daughters, and Sanders’ two sons and then attacked the woman and drove her to a secluded area and raped her.

Bucklew was arrested for the Sanders murder and later escaped from jail, hid in the home of his ex-girlfriend’s mother and beat her with a hammer.

The execution would be the first in Missouri since January 2017.