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Adam KlasfeldFeb 18th, 2021, 4:35 pm In a trio of cases of men seeking to be executed next to a spiritual advisor, a Muslim, Buddhist and Christian reached different outcomes before a Supreme Court that remained tight-lipped about its reasoning. The high court did not reveal why the justices denied Domineque Hakim Marcelle Ray a Muslim advisor before sending him to his death. Patrick Henry Murphy, a Buddhist priest, was spared the ultimate judgment, with one justice finding that prison officials could constitutionally deny a spiritual advisor so long as they did not play favorites. The Chr...

Jaclyn Diaz MORE Willie B. Smith is on death row for his conviction in the 1991 abduction, robbery, and murder of 22-year-old Sharma Ruth Johnson. Photo by NPR - Alabama Department of Corrections The U.S. Supreme Court blocked the planned execution of an Alabama death row inmate late Thursday night, after justices upheld a lower court's ruling requiring Willie B. Smith III's personal pastor to be in the chamber with him when he was given the lethal injection. The decision came down the same night Smith w...

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation via Getty Images Two years ago, in Dunn v. Ray (2019), the Supreme Court rejected a request by a Muslim inmate on death row to have an imam provide him with spiritual advice and comfort during his final moments of life. The decision was 5-4 along ideological lines, but it triggered a widespread backlash across the political spectrum. As Justice Elena Kagan noted in her dissenting opinion in Ray, the state of Alabama permitted Christian inmates to have a spiritual adviser present, but not Muslims, so the Court’s decision in Ray permi...

Supreme Court Stays Execution Of Alabama Inmate Who Requested Pastor’s Presence By Jaclyn Diaz  February 12, 2021 The U.S. Supreme Court blocked the planned execution of an Alabama death row inmate late Thursday night, after justices upheld a lower court’s ruling requiring Willie B. Smith III’s personal pastor to be in the chamber with him when he was given the lethal injection. The decision came down the same night Smith was originally scheduled to be put to death inside of the William C. Holman Correctional Facility. In the ruling, Justice Elena Kagan wrote that Alabama’s Departmen...