The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday barred the State of Alabama from executing Willie Smith because it had refused to allow his pastor to be present with him in the execution chamber. An opinion from the Court stated that “Alabama has not carried its burden of showing that the exclusion of all clergy members from the execution chamber is necessary to ensure prison security.” For decades, Alabama permitted a Christian chaplain to be in the execution chamber during executions, and there was never an incident with that policy. But when Domineque Ray, a devout Muslim, requested that an imam be present as his spiritual advisor during his February 2019 execution, the State refused. Mr. Ray challenged the policy and the Supreme Court allowed the execution to proceed. But Justice Elena Kagan wrote in dissent that barring a non-Christian inmate from having a minister of his own faith by his side during his execution “goes against the Establishment Clause’s core principle of denominational neutrality” and called the Court’s decision allowing the execution to go forward “profoundly wrong.” In a similar case just two months later, the Supreme Court stayed the execution of a Buddhist inmate because Texas had denied his request […]
