And this is why "state's rights" is an inadequate political-legal philosophy: state governments can sometimes be even more brutal, thuggish, and criminal than the feds.
Missouri Executed This Man While His Appeal Was Pending in Court (The Atlantic)
Asked repeatedly not to execute Smulls while appeals were pending, state officials failed even to respond to emails from defense attorneys that night while corrections officials went ahead with the execution. Smulls thus was pronounced dead four minutes before the Supreme Court denied his final stay request. This was not an accident or some bureaucratic misunderstanding and did not come as a surprise to Smulls’ lawyers. They say it was the third straight execution in Missouri in which corrections officials went ahead with lethal injection before the courts were through with the condemned man's appeals.*