Executioners Lobby for Death Row Inmate at High Court

A Missouri death row inmate’s Supreme Court fight has support from unlikely allies: former executioners.

The group of ex-prison officials—wardens, superintendents, commissioners, and even executioners themselves—aren’t directly involved in Russell Bucklew’s case. But they’ve filed an amicus—or “friend of the court"—brief with the justices to share firsthand reflections on administering the ultimate punishment.

They’re trying to help Bucklew avoid it. Or at least to avoid the way the state wants to do it.

Bucklew argues his impending execution by lethal injection would violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

His rare and severe health conditions—leading to ...