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(CNN) - Missouri prison officials executed convicted murderer Russell Bucklew for lethal injection Tuesday night despite objections from activists who thought the method would lead to a horrible death, reported CNF affiliate KFVS.
Bucklew, 51, was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping and first-degree robbery in 1997. He was pronounced dead at 6:23 p.m. CT (7:23 p.m. ET), KFVS said.
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Former Cape Girardeau County Prosecutor Morley Swingle, who tried Bucklew, said the death "was very peaceful."
A KFVS journalist who witnessed the execution said she could see Bucklew on a stretcher with a white sheet to his chest. Bucklew was looking across the observation room. She said he turned his head to look forward and shook his feet a little. Then he let out a sigh, and there was no more movement. The curtains closed for a few minutes, he said, and reopened with him still on the couch.
There were no visible complications, he said.
Swingle said Bucklew "closed his eyes and went to sleep."
The activists were worried that Bucklew's disease caused a dreadful death when he was given drugs during his execution. He had a rare blood vessel disorder called cavernous hemangioma. The disease can cause tumors in the head and regular bleeding from the mouth, nose, eyes and ears.
Proponents of suspending execution were worried that lethal injection could cause prolonged asphyxiation and excruciating pain.
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"We regret the unnecessary and illegal execution of Russell Bucklew tonight," said Cassandra Stubbs, director of the Capital Punishment Project in the US Civil Liberties Union.
“Missouri carried out an execution that ran the risk of becoming a torture and violated international law, despite remorse and Bucklew's exemplary prison record. The idea that killing this man, who had a terminal illness and had been a model prisoner for 23 years, was worth staining our democracy and our humanity is a disgrace. ”
Swingle, the former prosecutor, said Bucklew's death was in stark contrast to the violent death of his victim, Michael Sanders, who was shot in front of his ex-girlfriend and four children.
Gov. Mike Parson rejected a clemency request, his press office said, without providing additional details.
Bucklew's lawyers had argued that the state should have considered death by lethal gas as an alternative.
In April, the Supreme Court ruled against Bucklew in a 5-4 decision, which means that plans for lethal injection could proceed.
Judge Neil Gorsuch said that the Eighth Amendment "does not require avoiding any risk of pain" when carrying out executions.
He also said that Bucklew had not "presented any evidence" that execution with lethal gas "would significantly reduce his risk of pain," Gorsuch said.
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But the ACLU said that executing Bucklew would violate the ban on the Constitution against cruel and unusual punishment.
“What makes the execution of (Bucklew) different is that it has a medical condition that would make it one of the most horrifying in the history of the United States,” wrote the ACLU.
Bucklew had successfully avoided his execution in the past.
In 2014, the Supreme Court granted Bucklew a suspension of the execution, pending appeals.
Dr. Joel Zivot had submitted an affidavit in the case saying that Bucklew's airway is so "severely compromised and obstructed," especially when lying down, that it could break easily, which increases the risk that Bucklew could drown or suffocate.
"If you touch it, it bleeds," Zivot wrote about Bucklew's airway.
But Gorsuch, the current Supreme Court judge who wrote the majority opinion against Bucklew's case this year, said justice must be done for Bucklew's victims.
"The people of Missouri, the surviving victims of Mr. Bucklew's crimes and others like them deserve better," Gorsuch wrote.
Bucklew was convicted of fatally shooting the alleged new boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend, Sanders, and shooting Sanders' son before kidnapping Stephanie Ray Pruitt.
After raping his ex-girlfriend, according to court documents, Bucklew was involved in a shooting in which he and a Missouri state agent were injured.
Ariane De Vogue, Dave Alsup and Vivian Kuo of CNN contributed to this report.
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