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Convicted southern Missouri killer set to be executed this spring

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A May execution date has been scheduled for a convicted killer from southwest Missouri’s Ozark. The case has been working its way through the court system for almost 30 years.

Convicted killer Walter Barton is scheduled to be executed on May 19, 2020 in Bonne Terre (undated photo courtesy of the Missouri Department of Corrections)

The Missouri Supreme Court today set a May 19th execution date for convicted killer Walter Barton, who was sentenced to death for the 1991 killing of 81-year-old Gladys Kuehler. The elderly woman managed a mobile home park in Ozark, which is south of Springfield.

Kuehler was unable to move without the assistance of a cane, according to court documents.

Court documents say she had been stabbed more than 45 times, and that her jugular vein was severed.

One of Kuehler’s eyes was also slashed, and court documents say the victim was also struck in the head with a heavy object like a baseball bat.

The 64-year-old Barton will be executed by lethal injection at the maximum-security prison in southeast Missouri’s Bonne Terre, unless a federal judge or the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes. Barton could also request clemency from Governor Mike Parson.

The “Springfield News-Leader” notes Barton was initially convicted in 1994, and ended up having five trials because two convictions were overturned on appeal.

Court documents also indicate that Barton was convicted of assaulting, with intent to kill, a convenience store clerk in 1976, before being paroled from prison in February 1984.

One month after being released from prison, prosecutors say Barton attacked, choked and threatened to kill another convenience store clerk in West Plains.

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U.S. Supreme Court stays Russell Bucklew execution, Gov. Nixon denies clemency

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The U.S. Supreme Court has issued a stay of execution for condemned Missouri inmate Russell Bucklew. He was sentenced to die by lethal injection after midnight Wednesday morning for the 1996 murder of Michael Sanders.

Russell Bucklew (courtesy, Missouri Department of Corrections)

Russell Bucklew (courtesy, Missouri Department of Corrections)

Attorney General Chris Koster (D) says the full Court is anticipated to consider Bucklew’s pending requests on Wednesday. He notes in his statement that the execution warrant for Bucklew is valid through midnight, Wednesday night, meaning the execution could be carried out any time May 21.

Bucklew’s attorneys argue that he suffers from malformed blood vessels that could increase the risk of pain and suffering or a prolonged lethal injection.

The timing of this stay by the U.S. Supreme Court is similar to events leading up to the execution of Allan Nicklasson in December.  He had been scheduled to be executed at 12:01 the morning of December 11 but a stay was issued by the Court late the night before, with the Court hearing arguments on December 11.  His execution was eventually carried out after a delay of nearly 23 hours.

Governor Jay Nixon (D) has meanwhile denied a petition for clemency for Bucklew.

In his statement, Nixon says, “Russell Bucklew came to the home of Michael Sanders armed and with the intent to murder him. After storming into the home and fatally shooting Mr. Sanders, Bucklew fired a shot at Sanders’ six-year-old son, but missed. Bucklew then continued on a rampage of violence, including the armed kidnapping and rape of his former girlfriend and a shootout with the Missouri State Highway Patrol that left a trooper wounded. The jury in this case properly found that these heinous crimes warranted the death penalty, and my denial of clemency upholds the jury’s decision.

“I ask that the people of Missouri remember Michael Sanders and keep his family, as well as the other victims of Russell Bucklew’s crimes, in their thoughts and prayers.”

 

Bill proposed to address sentencing of juveniles convicted of murder

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A bill has been heard in a House committee that aims to solve a problem with the sentencing of juveniles found guilty of first-degree murder in Missouri.

Representative Stanley Cox (right) listens as Matt Selby with the Missouri Prosecutors Association testifies in favor of Cox's bill.

Representative Stanley Cox (right) listens as Matt Selby with the Missouri Prosecutors Association testifies in favor of Cox’s bill.

A 2005 Missouri Supreme Court ruling eliminated the sentence of death for juveniles. Then in 2012 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that when there is no alternative to life without parole, that is an inappropriate sentence for someone under 18.

Representative Stanley Cox (R-Sedalia) says that leaves it up to the state legislature to put an alternative in the law, and his bill (HB 1560) proposes one.

“The choices will be that they can have life without parole,” says Cox, “Or alternatively … they can have a sentence of 50 years without parole and then be subject to parole.”

Representative Rochelle Walton Gray (D-Black Jack) says that’s not much of a choice.

“When you say 50 years you may as well be saying life for an 18 year-old, or anyone older than that, as a matter of fact, so you’re really not trying to give any other options for the most part,” Walton Gray says to Cox. “It’s just that you know that with the decision that was made you have to come up with an option as far as the Court is concerned.”

Joplin attorney William Fleischaker says Cox’s proposal misses the intent of a Supreme Court ruling in 2012.

“You can’t automatically sentence a youthful offender to life without parole and, in my opinion, the equivalent of life without parole,” Fleischaker tells the committee, “Without considering various youth-related factors.”

The lack of an alternative is what attorneys for Alyssa Bustamante cite in a recent hearing in which she seeks to vacate her guilty plea in the 2009 murder of her 9-year-old neighbor, Elizabeth Olten.  Bustamante’s lawyers argue that the lack of an alternative to life without parole intimidated her into agreeing to a guilty plea.  Those lawyers cite the same 2012 Supreme Court case, Miller vs. Alabama, that Cox references in support of his bill.

No vote has been taken on Cox’s bill.

Blunt, Nixon both pleased with Supreme Court gun ruling

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A 5-4 ruling upholding the right of Americans to own guns pleases the governor and attorney general.

To Governor Blunt, there wasn’t really a question as to whether the Second Amendment conferred an individual right to bear arms.

"The Supreme Court didn’t give us the right," Blunt told the Missourinet, "The United States Constitution clearly states that the American people have a right to keep and bear firearms. The court has affirmed that and I am very pleased with their decision."

The decision strikes down Washington, D. C.’s ban on handgun ownership. The ruling found that government can enact gun ownership restrictions, but that the District’s prohibition went too far.

A spokesman for Attorney General Jay Nixon, Scott Holste, says Nixon joined 29 other attorneys general who filed briefs with the Supreme Court, arguing that the Second Amendment conferred an individual right. He says the Supreme upheld that argument. Others had argued that it was a collective right reserved only for those who were members of a militia.

Holste says the ruling supports what he calls Missouri’s common sense gun laws.

Download/listen Brent Martin reports (:60 MP3)

Professor Says Court Discloses Leanings In Church-State Case

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A University of Missouri law professor says the US Supreme Court gave us a glimpse into its views of separation of church and state as well as separation of powers in a ruling handed down Monday.

The court decision in Hein v. Freedom From Religion Foundation never got to the merits of the lawsuit filed by a Wisconsin-based group of atheists and agnostics challenging the Bush Administration’s faith-based initiatives. Instead, the US Supreme Court ruled the group didn’t meet the criteria necessary to file such a suit; that it lacked "standing". The court ruled that being a federal taxpayer was not sufficient as grounds to file a lawsuit that the parties needed to prove they were truly aggrieved to file suit.

University of Missouri law professor Carl Esbeck says the court also abided by a 1968 Supreme Court ruling that prohibits such lawsuits against an initiative sponsored by the executive branch.  Esbeck says an opposite ruling would have placed the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives under incredible scrutiny into its day-to-day activities. He says the court decided it didn’t have jurisdiction to interfere with an executive branch initiative.

Esbeck specializes on church-state issues and actually helped craft the Bush Administration’s faith-based initiative.

Download/listen Brent Martin reports. (:60 MP3)

Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Could Change Under Anti-Crime Bill

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Language has been placed in a large anti-crime bill that would conform Missouri’s ban on partial-birth abortion to the law upheld by the United States Supreme Court.

The wording of the amendment is taken from the Nebraska case in which the US Supreme Court upheld a partial-birth abortion ban. The Missouri legislature passed a ban in 1999 over the veto of Governor Mel Carnahan. The Supreme Court has asked the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals to review that law in light of its ruling.

Rep. Bob Onder (R-Lake St. Louis) says there’s no evidence the procedure is used in Missouri. Onder has succeeded in keeping the practice a Class A felony, which is harsher than the Class C felony that is federal law. Onder says he doesn’t believe the constitutionality of the bill rests on the penalty.

The anti-crime bill, HCS SS SCS SB 429 , now goes to the Senate with time running out on the session.

 

Download/listen Brent Martin reports (:60 MP3)

House Approves Death Penalty for Murder of Criminal Justice Personnel

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Anyone convicted of murdering a criminal justice official would be put to death under a bill approved by the House.

Kill a cop or a prison guard or someone who works for the court or anyone in criminal justice and face execution. That is the meat of a bill approved in the House on a 109-to-35 vote.

Kansas City Representative John Burnett (D) says the death penalty statutes already take such factors into account and he says they seem to be working, because several people convicted of killing a police officer have been put to death. Current law requires at least one of 14 aggravating circumstances be part of a murder case for the accused to be eligible for the death penalty. Among those 14 listed:  the killing of judicial officers or prosecutors; the killing of a police officer, corrections official or fireman; and the killing of a correctional employee.

Still, Sponsor Michael Parson (R-Bolivar) says his bill is needed. Parson says, "The people we’re talking about are the last line of defense for the people of this state. We need to do everything we can to protect them."

Parson says his bill adds emergency personnel and court personnel, who he says might be implied in current law, but aren’t spelled out like they would be under HCS HB 945 . The bill now heads to the Senate.

Download/listen Brent Martin reports (:60 MP3)

U.S. Senate Approves Detainee Trials Bill

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The U.S. Senate has approved the Military Commissions Act of 2006, legislation authorizing the President to establish military commissions for the trial of alien unlawful enemy combatants engaged in hostilities against the United States. Senator Kit Bond was among those both speaking against and voting against a series of amendments designed to extend greater rights to detainees and to restrict the authority of interrogators to question detainees. He criticized one such amendment as a roadblock to the effort to protect the country from terrorism. Senator Jim Talent joined Senator Bond in voting for the final version of the bill. The bill passed by the Senate is almost identical to one passed by the U.S. House. The legislation results from the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, last June, that America’s detainee policy for enemy combatants violated both U.S. and international law. The final tally was 65-34 in favor of the bill.

Related web sites:
U.S. Senate Bill 3930

Judge Rejects State Execution Proposal

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US District judge Fernando Gaitan says the state’s suggested new execution protocol is not good enough. Gaitan wants a state board-licensed anesthesiologist to be present to supervise executions. The state says it can’t find any anesthesiologists who would do it, and suggests using other medical personnel. Gaitan says the absence of an anesthesiologist leaves the door open to strong arguments that executions might be torturous. He says he does not intend to create unreasonable delays in executions with his rulings, however. The Attorney General’s office already has filed an appeal of Gaitan’s original order, saying it effectively blocks executions in Missouri. The US Supreme Court has taken on the issue, agreeing to consider cases from other states that claim lethal injection violates the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Attorney General Appeals Execution Ruling

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Attorney General Jay Nixon has appealed a federal judge’s order that has blocked executions in Missouri. The appeal says United States District Judge Fernando Gaitan’s order requiring anesthesiologists prepare and supervise lethal injections effectively bans executions because anesthesiologists have refused to be part of the procedure. Lawyers for prison inmate Michael Taylor, whose case triggered Gaitan’s ruling, have urged Gaitan to reject the state’s response to his ruling. The state has suggested Gaitan allow unidentified “medical personnel” to take care of the drug-mixing and injectins. Taylor’s lawyers call the proposal “completely unacceptable” and say it does not protect inmates from risk of unconstitutionally painful executions. The US Supreme Court also has taken on cases challenging lethal injection, putting on hold executions across the country.