[ad_1]
Atmore, Alab. – A Muslim detainee who complained in connection with a lawsuit alleging that Alabama would not let his Islamic spiritual adviser show up at the execution hall was put to death Thursday after the highest court in the country opened the way. . Dominique Ray, 42, was pronounced dead at 22:12. of a lethal injection at the state prison of Atmore.
Ray had argued that the Alabama enforcement procedure favored Christian detainees, as a Christian chaplain employed by the prison generally remained in the execution room during a lethal injection but the state would not let his imam be present.
State lawyers stated that only prison employees were allowed to sit in the chamber for security reasons.
Prison spokesman Bob Horton said his imam visited Ray on Wednesday and Thursday. Ray's Imam, Yusef Maisonet, witnessed the execution from an adjoining witness room. There was no Christian chaplain in the room.
On Wednesday, the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit suspended the execution of religious arguments, but the United States Supreme Court gave the green light to proceed in case 5 Thursday night.
Corrections Department of Alabama / Document distributed by Reuters
Judge Elena Kagan stated in a dissenting opinion that the dissenting judges had felt that the decision to let the execution go forward was "deeply wrong".
Other states generally allow spiritual advisers to accompany convicts to the executing chamber, but not to the interior, said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Center's Information Center. death penalty, which studies capital punishment in the United States.
Durham stated that he was not aware of any other state where the execution protocol provided for the presence of a Christian chaplain in the executions room.
Ray was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl, committed in 1995. Tiffany Harville disappeared from her home in Selma on July 15, 1995 and her rotting body was found a month later in a cotton field.
It was the first performance of the year in Alabama.
Ray was sentenced in 1999 after another man, Marcus Owden, confessed to his role in the crime and involved Ray. Owden told the police that they had taken her one night to town and then raped her. Owden said Ray cut the girl to the throat. Owden pled guilty to murder, testified against Ray and is serving a life sentence without parole.
A jury recommended the death sentence to Ray by 11 votes to one.
Ray's lawyers had also requested in legal filings to suspend the execution for other reasons. The lawyers say nothing has been revealed to the defense team. According to information from a state psychiatric facility, Owden suffered from schizophrenia and delusions.
The Supreme Court also rejected this claim on Thursday.
Source link
