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FILE – This undated archive photo from the Alabama Corrections Department shows inmate Dominique Ray. (Alabama Department of Corrections via AP, File)
ATMORE, Alabama – A Muslim detainee who had filed a lawsuit because Alabama refused to have his Islamic spiritual counselor present in the execution room was put to death on Thursday after the highest The court of the country cleared the way.
Dominique Ray, 42, was pronounced dead at 22:12. of a lethal injection at the state prison of Atmore.
Ray had explained that the Alabama enforcement procedure favored Christian inmates because a Christian chaplain employed by the prison generally remained in the execution room during a lethal injection, but that the state did not leave his imam.
State lawyers stated that only prison employees were allowed to sit in the Senate for security reasons.
OHIO MUSLIM INMATE SUE ON THE PREPARATION OF MEALS
Ray's Imam, Yusef Maisonet, attended the execution from an adjacent witness room, after visiting to Ray in the last two days. There was no Christian chaplain in the room, a concession that the state had agreed to make.
Attached to a court in death chamber, the guard asked Ray if he had any last words. The detainee declared an Islamic statement of his faith in Arabic. He then made a sign of his hand consisting of a closed fist with the index finger pointed and looking into the performance observation room, reported AL.com.
The 11th US Federal Court of Appeal suspended Wednesday execution over religious arguments, but the US Supreme Court allowed it to proceed by a decision of 5- Thursday night. The judges relied on the fact that Ray did not raise the issue until January 28 to justify his decision.
Judge Elena Kagan said, in a dissenting opinion, that she considered the decision to let the execution go "deeply wrong". [19659005] Other states generally allow spiritual counselors to accompany convicts to the executing chamber, but not to the interior, said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Center for Disaster Management. Information on the death penalty, which studies capital punishment in the United States.
Durham said he did not do it. I am aware of the existence of another state where the protocol of execution provides for the presence of a Christian chaplain in the execution room.
Alabama Prison Commissioner, Jeff Dunn, states that it is the first time that the state objects to his presence. He added that the state would review the procedures to determine if it was necessary to change something
Ray had been 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 decaying body was found a month later in a cotton field.
This was the first performance of the year in Alabama.
In 1999, Ray was convicted of 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, testifies against Ray and is serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole.
A jury recommended Ray's death sentence by 11 votes to one. According to AL.com, no representative of the Harville family attended the execution.
Ray's lawyers had also requested, in court proceedings, a stay of execution for other reasons. The lawyers said that the records of a state psychiatric facility had not been disclosed to the defense team, which would suggest that Odden was suffering from schizophrenia and delusions. The Supreme Court also rejected the claim.
Spencer Hahn, one of Ray's lawyers, said that he was appalled by the fact that Ray had been treated unequally at his death because he was a member of the group. A religious minority,
"Domineque was a pious Muslim, he was a son, a father, a brother.He wanted equal treatment in his last moments," Hahn wrote in a statement.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP [19659005] Ray's legal team says his first name was Domineque. The penitentiary system used a different spelling, citing judicial records.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said he was pleased that the court let the execution unfold.
"For 20 years, Domineque Ray has escaped execution for the barbaric assassination of a 15-year-old Selma girl.This evening, Ray's late appointment to justice is finally respected" Marshall said.
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