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This undated photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows Patrick Murphy. Patrick Murphy, sentenced to death in Texas, and Dominique Ray, sentenced to death in Alabama, have both recently gone to the Supreme Court with the same request. Stop my execution, everyone said, because the state will not let my spiritual advisor accompany me to the execution chamber, even if other prisoners of different faiths acquire this ability. But although the Supreme Court refused to stop Ray's execution in February, she temporarily granted Murphy a reprieve on Thursday night. The difference in both cases seems to result from the moment when each man asked for the presence of his spiritual advisor. (Texas Department of Criminal Justice via AP)
DALLAS – Texas jails will no longer allow clergy into the death chamber after the US Supreme Court blocked the scheduled execution of a man who had argued that his religious freedom would be violated if his Buddhist spiritual advisor would not could not accompany him.
Effective immediately, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice will only allow prison security personnel to go to the execution chamber, a spokeswoman said 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 detainees into the room where they would be executed, 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.
One of Murphy's lawyers, David Dow, said that the policy change did not meet all of their legal arguments and was wrong in the 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.
Murphy's lawyers told the High Court that carrying him out without the presence of his spiritual advisor would violate the first amendment's right to freedom of religion. Aged 57 – he was part of a group of inmates who had escaped from a Texas jail in 2000 and had committed numerous robberies, including one where a policeman had been shot and killed – became a Buddhist while he was in prison, almost ten years ago.
In his concurring opinion, the most recent judge of the court, Brett Kavanaugh, wrote that Texas had two options: to allow all inmates to have a religious advisor of their religion in the executions room or to authorize religious counselors only in the hall of execution.
"The government can not discriminate against religion in general or against particular religious denominations," Kavanaugh wrote.
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.
The move aligns Texas with most other states sentenced to the death penalty, which prohibit clergy from entering the execution hall, according to Robert Dunham, a lawyer and executive director of the Center. 39, information on the death penalty. But he is also likely to open new legal battles for the busiest country in the United States, he said.
The policy change could be challenged as discriminatory discrimination against religion and retroactively targeting Murphy despite a general wording, said Dunham. If these arguments are presented to the High Court, a decision could have consequences on the way executions are carried out in the country, he said.
The Supreme Court's decision in the Murphy case followed a similar call in February, when the court ruled that Alabama could execute a Muslim detainee without his Islamic spiritual adviser in the hall. execution. The court's decision that authorized the execution of Dominique Ray sparked public criticism, and Dunham said Murphy's stay of execution could have been an effort by the judges to avoid further backtracking.
"When you look at the court order, they hoped Texas would give them a way out by welcoming Patrick Murphy's request," he said. "Texas has chosen not to do so, so it is likely that the ball will return to the Supreme Court."
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