Supreme Court Justices Question Lethal Injection of Missouri Man

(Bloomberg) -- New Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the Supreme Court’s liberal wing in questioning Missouri’s plan for executing a man who says his rare medical condition means he could end up choking on his own blood.

Hearing arguments on Election Day, the justices weighed the fate of convicted murderer Russell Bucklew, who suffers from cavernous hemangioma, a disease that has caused blood-filled tumors in his head, neck and throat.

Kavanaugh directed all of his questions at the Missouri lawyer defending the plan. He asked whether the state could go forward even if the method would impose "gruesome, brutal pain."

Bucklew, 50, says Missouri’s execution protocol method would be unconstitutional in his case. He has proposed the state look to lethal gas an alternative way of killing him.

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