Supreme Court stays Missouri execution over dissent of four justices News
Supreme Court stays Missouri execution over dissent of four justices

The US Supreme Court [official website] on Tuesday granted a stay [order PDF] to Russell Bucklew who was scheduled to be executed that evening.

The brief order stayed the execution pending a writ of certiorari to the court because of the urgency of Bucklew’s pending execution. Four justices dissented from the order: Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch.

Bucklew contends [SCOTUSblog report] that execution by lethal injection would violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment, because he suffers from a rare disease that would be exacerbated by the method of execution. The disease has caused “unstable, blood-filled tumors to grow in his head, neck, and throat,” and Buckley posits that the execution will cause him a “gruesome and painful” death.

Bucklew was convicted [procedural history, PDF] by a Missouri state court jury of murder, kidnapping and rape. The jury recommended, and the trial court subsequently sentenced Bucklew to death.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Egypt President Anwar Sadat visits Israel

On November 19, 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat visited Israel, becoming the first leader of an Arab nation to officially visit. Two years later, President Sadat became the first Arab leader to recognize Israel by signing the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty. Read President Sadat's address to the Israeli Knesset.

Jay Treaty signed

On November 19, 1794, US Chief Justice John Jay and British foreign secretary Lord Grenville signed a treaty in Philadelphia under which British forces pulled out of the disputed Northwest Territory. Review the Jay Treaty.