Contact: Gabe Cahn, [email protected], 202.776.7700, c: 202.412.1678, @AIUSAmedia
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – In response to the federal appeals court decision to stay the execution of Missouri death row inmate Russell Bucklew, Steven W. Hawkins, executive director of Amnesty International USA, issued the following statement:
“The Court’s decision to halt Russell Bucklew’s execution was absolutely the right thing to do. If the Court had not intervened, Missouri authorities would have executed a man who because of a rare health condition, might have suffocated or choked to death after injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital. We commend the decision of the court and call on people throughout the state of Missouri to join the movement to abolish the death penalty.”
Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 3 million members in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.