The state supreme court indicates it is ready to start ordering executions.
The court has notified two prisoners facing death for murders in 1995 that it will set execution dates for them "in due course." The judges have not indicated when they will take that action.One of the inmates is Russell Bucklew, who murdered his former girlfriend’s news boyfriend in Cape Girardeau County in 19-95. He also kidnapped the ex-girlfriend and raped her. He was finally caught after a chase and a shootout that left him…and a Highway Patrolman…wounded.The other inmate in line to get an execution date before long is John J. Middleton, who killed fellow meth dealer Alfred Pinegar near Ridgeway in northwest Missouri in ’95. Middleton believed Pinegar had given police information resulting in the arrests of several other Harrison County meth dealers.
