Supreme Court Considers Religious Rights of Condemned Murderer

U.S. Supreme Court justices are set to hear a bid by John Henry Ramirez, who is sentenced to death in Texas, to have his pastor lay hands on him during his execution in a case testing how far states must go to accommodate religious requests by condemned inmates, reports Reuters. After lower courts refused to issue a stay of execution ahead of Ramirez’s scheduled lethal injection in September, 2021, the Supreme Court stepped in and issued one in order to hear his appeal.

Texas contends that Ramirez’s religion-based claims are a transparent delay tactic to avoid execution, comparing them in legal papers to a “game of ecclesiastical whack-a-mole.” Lawyers for Ramirez have argued that the state’s refusal to let his Christian pastor touch him and audibly pray as he dies from the lethal injection violates the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment guarantee of the free exercise of religion as well as federal law. His lawyers also have argued that the Texas policy of allowing spiritual advisors to be present in the execution chamber but forbidding them from laying hands on the condemned inmate or vocalizing prayer disrespects religion. The case centers on religious protections for condemned inmates under the First Amendment and a 2000 federal law that requires officials to show a compelling interest to deny a prisoner’s religious-based request and to do so using the least restrictive means.