Missouri execution canceled pending appeals court review

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Missouri suspended the execution Wednesday of a man convicted of killing three convenience store workers in 1994, saying courts didn't have time to quickly resolve questions raised in a last-minute ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ernest Lee Johnson was scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. Tuesday, but it was put on hold when justices ordered the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider Johnson's claim that execution drugs would cause painful seizures because of his brain tumor.

[...] there will not be an execution before the warrant expires today.

According to court documents, a doctor who examined Johnson determined that Missouri's execution drug, pentobarbital, could cause serious seizures because Johnson still has part of a benign brain tumor.

In May 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court stopped the execution of Missouri inmate Russell Bucklew, who claimed the execution drug could cause suffering due to a rare congenital condition that causes weakened and malformed blood vessels, as well as tumors in his nose and throat.