Death-Row Inmate With Rare Disease Gets U.S. Supreme Court Review

The Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal from a Missouri death-row inmate who says his rare medical condition means the state’s lethal-injection method probably would cause him to choke on his own blood.

Convicted murderer Russell Bucklew, 49, says Missouri’s execution protocol method would be unconstitutional in his case because he suffers from cavernous hemangioma, a disease that has caused blood-filled tumors in his head, neck and throat.