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By Associated press
DALLAS – Texas jails will no longer accept clergy in the death chamber after the US Supreme Court blocked the scheduled execution of a man who claimed his religious freedom would be violated if his Buddhist spiritual advisor could not 'to accompany.
Effective immediately, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice will only allow prison security personnel to visit the death chamber, a spokeswoman said on Wednesday. The policy change follows the decision of the High Court to suspend the execution of Patrick Murphy, a member of the "Texas 7" gang of escaped prisoners.
Texas had previously allowed clergy employed by the state to accompany inmates in the execution room, but the prison staff included only Muslim clerics and religious.
In light of this policy, the Supreme Court said Thursday that Texas could not pursue Murphy's sentence without his Buddhist adviser or another Buddhist reverend chosen by the state.
"The government can not discriminate against religion in general or against particular religious denominations," wrote Brett Kavanaugh, the most recent judge of the court, in a concurring opinion.
Murphy's lawyers told the High Court that executing the 57-year-old without his spiritual advisor in the room would violate his First Amendment's right to freedom of religion. He became a Buddhist almost ten years ago while he was incarcerated.
One of these lawyers, David Dow, said that the policy change did not answer all their arguments and was a mistake in the main direction of the court's decision.
"Their arbitrary and, at least for now, hostile reaction to all religions, reveals a real need for close judicial oversight of the implementing protocol," Dow said.
Kristin Houlé, executive director of the Texas Coalition for the Abolition of the Death Penalty, described the new policy as "cruel and unusual" and urged the ministry to reconsider its decision.
Prison chaplains will still be able to observe executions in a witness room and meet with death row inmates, said Texas Department of Justice spokesman Jeremy Desel. He refused to develop the reasoning behind the policy change.
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