The US Supreme Court has put off the execution of a Missouri inmate with a rare medical condition. Source: AAP
THE US Supreme Court has indefinitely delayed the execution of a Missouri killer just hours before a deadline, sending his appeal back to a lower court.
The ruling came after a botched lethal injection in Oklahoma last month stirred fresh debate about capital punishment in the United States.
All three executions that had been scheduled to take place after that event have since been delayed.
Missouri was barred from executing Russell Bucklew as planned late on Wednesday in the court's order.
The Supreme Court declined to provide a reason in granting the stay, instead letting the appellate court decide whether to hold a hearing for Bucklew's case.
Bucklew, 46, had argued a rare vascular condition put him at risk of excruciating pain during execution, making it unconstitutional.
He had also raised concern about the drugs and methods used in Missouri's executions.
"We are extremely pleased and relieved," Bucklew's lawyer Cheryl Pilate said in a statement welcoming the order.
"What may be deemed constitutional for one prisoner may be gravely risky and in fact torturous for another in her filing," Pilate said in her court filing.
"Moreover, to allege such alternative means of execution, a prisoner requires the ability to obtain facts from the state of Missouri regarding the drugs to be used, their origin and the ingredients used in compounding them, among other things - facts that the state actively continues to conceal under the guise that they are 'state secrets.'"
A tortuous and painful death is in violation of the US Constitution's Eighth Amendment prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment.
On Tuesday, a flurry of legal proceedings before a federal appeals court ended with an 11th hour temporary stay issued by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
Bucklew was convicted in 1996 of murdering a love rival and raping a former girlfriend.
Death penalty states across the US have faced a barrage of legal actions challenging the origin of drugs used in lethal injections.
Oklahoma used an untested cocktail of drugs during the botched procedure because some drug suppliers have ceased making the substances usually used in executions available.
Clayton Lockett, a convicted killer and rapist, was put to death on April 29 by lethal injection in a process that took 43 minutes, well over the expected time of a little over 10 minutes.
His death in Oklahoma prompted officials in that state to temporarily halt executions and review its execution drug protocols, amid harsh criticism from human rights and anti-death penalty advocates.
President Barack Obama called the incident - in which Lockett eventually died of a massive heart attack - "deeply troubling" and warned that it raised "significant questions about how the death penalty is being applied."
Some US states have turned to compounding pharmacies as a source of the drugs, but the future of that option is in doubt, as state governments review their execution procedures.
Despite the questions over lethal injection drugs, a recent study found that 59 per cent of Americans remained in favour of capital punishment, with 35 per cent against.
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