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(updated) Court fight: Muslim man facing execution wants imam present
Last edited Fri Feb 8, 2019, 03:35 AM - Edit history (2)
Source: Associated Press
Court fight: Muslim man facing execution wants imam present
By KIM CHANDLER
February 7, 2019
ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — A Muslim inmate who complained that the state of Alabama won’t let him have an Islamic spiritual adviser beside him when he’s executed awaited a U.S. Supreme Court decision on whether the lethal injection would be carried out as planned Thursday evening or put on hold.
Attorneys for Dominique Ray, 42, said Alabama’s execution procedure favors Christian inmates because a Christian chaplain employed by the prison typically remains in the execution chamber during a lethal injection.
Ray, as a Muslim, had asked that his imam replace the chaplain in the death chamber, but that request was denied. The state said it refuses to let a non-prison employee into the room where the lethal injection is given — though it has agreed to skip its usual practice of having the chaplain present.
On Wednesday, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to halt Thursday’s execution plan so Ray’s arguments could be weighed.
“The central constitutional problem here is that the state has regularly placed a Christian cleric in the execution room to minister to the needs of Christian inmates, but has refused to provide the same benefit to a devout Muslim and all other non-Christians,” the court’s three-judge panel wrote.
-snip-
By KIM CHANDLER
February 7, 2019
ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — A Muslim inmate who complained that the state of Alabama won’t let him have an Islamic spiritual adviser beside him when he’s executed awaited a U.S. Supreme Court decision on whether the lethal injection would be carried out as planned Thursday evening or put on hold.
Attorneys for Dominique Ray, 42, said Alabama’s execution procedure favors Christian inmates because a Christian chaplain employed by the prison typically remains in the execution chamber during a lethal injection.
Ray, as a Muslim, had asked that his imam replace the chaplain in the death chamber, but that request was denied. The state said it refuses to let a non-prison employee into the room where the lethal injection is given — though it has agreed to skip its usual practice of having the chaplain present.
On Wednesday, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to halt Thursday’s execution plan so Ray’s arguments could be weighed.
“The central constitutional problem here is that the state has regularly placed a Christian cleric in the execution room to minister to the needs of Christian inmates, but has refused to provide the same benefit to a devout Muslim and all other non-Christians,” the court’s three-judge panel wrote.
-snip-
Read more: https://apnews.com/50ced4152dc74df1975a925e4fa29038
______________________________________________________________________
Source: Associated Press
POLITICS 02/07/2019 10:29 pm ET Updated 1 hour ago
Dominique Ray, Muslim Inmate, Executed After Appeal Over Spiritual Adviser Fails
Kim Chandler
ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — A Muslim inmate who filed a legal challenge because Alabama wouldn’t let his Islamic spiritual adviser be present in the execution chamber was put to death Thursday after the nation’s highest court cleared the way.
Dominique Ray, 42, was pronounced dead at 10:12 p.m. of a lethal injection at the state prison in Atmore.
-snip-
Ray’s imam, Yusef Maisonet, watched the execution from an adjoining witness room, after visiting with Ray over the past two days. There was no Christian chaplain in the chamber, a concession the state agreed to make.
-snip-
Dominique Ray, Muslim Inmate, Executed After Appeal Over Spiritual Adviser Fails
Kim Chandler
ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — A Muslim inmate who filed a legal challenge because Alabama wouldn’t let his Islamic spiritual adviser be present in the execution chamber was put to death Thursday after the nation’s highest court cleared the way.
Dominique Ray, 42, was pronounced dead at 10:12 p.m. of a lethal injection at the state prison in Atmore.
-snip-
Ray’s imam, Yusef Maisonet, watched the execution from an adjoining witness room, after visiting with Ray over the past two days. There was no Christian chaplain in the chamber, a concession the state agreed to make.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dominique-ray-muslim-inmate-supreme-court-execution_us_5c5cf494e4b0a502ca3401a7
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