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No execution: Courts side with inmate wanting pastor present Kim Chandler Updated:  Tags:  FILE-This undated file photo provided by the Alabama Department of Corrections shows Willie B. Smith III. The Alabama Supreme Court on Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020 ordered that Smith III be put to death on Feb. 11, 2021 for the shotgun slaying of Sharma Ruth Johnson. The lethal injection of Willie B. Smith III was called off Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021, when the U.S. Supreme Court maintained an injunction. The state prison system said the execution would not proceed given the ruling.(Alabama Department of Correc...

An Alabama inmate won a reprieve from a scheduled lethal injection after SCOTUS said the state must allow his pastor in the death chamber.

Alabama calls off execution after US Supreme Court rules inmate, 51, convicted of fatally shooting a cop's sister in 1991 cannot be put to death without his pastor in the chamber Willie B. Smith III, 51, had been scheduled to receive a lethal injection on Thursday night at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Alabama The US Supreme Court ruled to stay Smith's execution hours before It ruled the state must allow Smith's personal pastor in the death chamber  Alabama has maintained that non-prison staff should not be in the room for security reasons  Smith was sentenced in 1992 for the m...