A Muslim detainee to be executed next week states that Alabama has violated his religious rights

MONTGOMERY, Alabama – A Muslim detainee who is to be executed in Alabama, said the state violated his rights by demanding a Christian chaplain to Prison to stand near him while he is being put to death, according to a lawsuit filed this week.

Dominique Ray must be executed on February 7 for mortally stabbing 15-year-old Tiffany Harville in 1995. A 42-year-old inmate has asked a federal judge in the proceedings on Monday to suspend his execution while the court examined his request.

Ray's lawyers stated that the prison director had rejected Ray's request to summon a Muslim imam in the execution hall instead Prison chaplain at the expected lethal injection. They added that the director also refused to ask the chaplain not to be present during his execution.

Convicted Alabama convicts may visit their spiritual advisor before execution and ask that person to attend execution execution from a nearby room. The prison officer and the prison chaplain are in the death chamber with the detainee during the recent executions in Alabama.

Ray's lawyers stated that "the mandatory presence of the chaplain in the execution chamber could serve only one interest – unconstitutional – to protect the soul's spiritual health from condemned convicted in the Christian belief system. "

Bob Horton, Department of Correctional Services spokesperson, wrote in an e-mail that the department had rules regarding who could enter the death chamber .

"The Corrections Department of Alabama follows a protocol that allows only licensed correctional officers, including the prison chaplain, to be inside the community. Horton wrote: "The presence of the chaplain from the prison to the chamber follows the protocol of the department, regardless of his or her spiritual beliefs or those of the inmate."

Inmate's spiritual counselor may testify. [19659009Ray'slawyershadrequestedanewtrialwithoutsuccessclaimingthatprosecutorshadnotrevealedanyrecordsshowingthatakeywitnesswassufferingfromsymptomsofschizophreniabeforefilingagainstRay19659009] Harville disappeared from his home in Selma in July 1995. His rotting body was found a month later in a field.

Ray was convicted in 1999 after his co-defendant Marcus Owden told the police that they l & # 39; They had kidnapped for a party in town and then raped. Owden said Ray had cut the girl's throat and had also taken her handbag, which contained $ 6 or $ 7.

Owden pled guilty to murder, testified against Ray and is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.