But if Bucklew's execution goes badly—his lawyers want it videotaped for evidence—the furor could dwarf the uproar over Clayton Lockett's execution. More than their Oklahoma counterparts, Missouri officials have been warned that they may be proceeding dangerously and unlawfully by using new injection protocols against a person whose medical condition makes him particularly vulnerable to the process—and, worse, that they are doing so without affording Bucklew's attorneys or the courts the opportunity to meaningfully review those procedures.

If Bucklew's lawyers and doctors are correct, if their client becomes a bloody mess Wednesday morning when the lethal drugs are administered, the killing (or the halted killing) of Bucklew may force the federal courts to confront and address the meaning of lethal-injection-secrecy laws in Missouri and elsewhere. Once that happens, it's possible (but not guaranteed) that those laws will be struck down because they shield vital state functions from public (or even judicial) review. What a mighty symbol Russell Bucklew would then become.

* * *

Like Lockett, and like others who have been executed recently under a cloud of state secrecy, Bucklew is not an innocent man. In March 1996, he murdered a man named Michael Sanders in front of Sanders's 6-year-old son and then kidnapped and raped the woman who had been living with Sanders, a woman who, not incidentally, was Bucklew's ex-girlfriend. Then there was a car chase and a shootout with the cops. It didn't take long for a jury to sentence Bucklew to death.

But Bucklew today is very sick. According to the testimony of Dr. Joel Zivot, a defense expert witness in the case, Bucklew "has a tumor growing in his face, occupying the nose, throat, and airway passages and causing him to experience constant facial pain and pressure as well as constant difficultly breathing." The congenital cavernous hemangioma, the doctor asserts, "results in a significant and dangerous compromise" of Bucklew's airways.

That causes medical and ethical complications for officials who want to ensure that Bucklew takes his last breath through those compromised airways sometime after 12:01 a.m. local time Wednesday. The way Missouri intends to do that, however, with a combination of lethal drugs, and without adequately testing Bucklew to try to better predict how his body may react, has caused Zivot to conclude that his patient will likely suffer an unconstitutional level of pain:

Based upon my review of Mr. Bucklew's medical records, it is my opinion that a a substantial risk exists that, during the execution, Mr. Bucklew will suffer from extreme or excruciating pain as a result of hemorrhaging or abnormal circulation of the lethal drug, leading to a prolonged execution.

After examining Bucklew in person on death row last week, the doctor was even more definitive. There is simply no way, he asserts, that the Missouri officials responsible for Bucklew's execution (none of whom will be doctors) will be prepared for what is likely to happen when Missouri's drugs meet Bucklew's body. From the second Zivot affidavit:

In examining the inside of his mouth and throat, I noted a very large vascular mass. The mass arises through the hard palate, extends into the upper maxilla on the right, and fully encompasses the uvula and distorts the anatomy of Mr. Bucklew’s airway. Mr. Bucklew’s airway is severely compromised or obstructed due to the hemangiomas. It is also friable, meaning it is weak and could tear or rupture. If you touch it, it bleeds.

Bucklew's attorneys don't argue that he shouldn't be executed. They argue instead that he cannot be executed without being subject to "cruel and unusual punishment" so long as he has his tumor, Missouri does not adequately treat him for it, and the state insists upon using drug combinations likely to exacerbate Bucklew's condition. All death is painful, his lawyers say, but in this instance excessive pain—unconstitutional pain—can be avoided.