International and Local Sources Urge Relief in Missouri Death Penalty Care
Opposition to the death penalty continues to slowly gain ground.
On March 19, ,the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) urged the United States to stay the execution of Russell Bucklew, which is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, March 20, 2018 in the state of Missouri. According to the IACHR, the U.S. is subject to the international obligations derived from the Charter of the Organization of American States and the American Declaration since it joined the OAS in 1951.
The IACHR granted precautionary measures to protect the life and physical integrity of Russell Bucklew on May 20, 2014. The request for precautionary measures was filed in the context of a petition filed by the ACLU alleging the violation of rights recognized in the American Declaration. Through the precautionary measures, the Commission asked the U.S. to refrain from carrying out the death penalty until the IACHR had the opportunity to issue a decision on the petitioner’s claims regarding the alleged violations of the American Declaration.
On March 18, 2018, the IACHR that the United States is responsible for the violation of the rights guaranteed in Articles I, XVIII, XXV and XXVI of the American Declaration, with respect to Russell Bucklew. The Inter-American Commission concluded, among other findings, that the United States did not provide him with effective access to judicial protection with regard to his right to be free from cruel and inhuman punishment and torture in the context of the application of lethal injection as the method of execution.
The IACHR noted that the United States is currently the only country in the Western Hemisphere to carry out executions.
Also on March 18, the Kansas City Star’s editorial board called for abolition of the death penalty in Missouri and Kansas. Wrote the editorial board of this major midwestern daily, “[t]he death penalty has been discredited, and it doesn’t deserve to survive.”