It was a remarkable demonstration that the American legal system respects the religious rights of all—rich or poor, virtuous or wicked. By an 8-to-1 vote, the Supreme Court agreed in Ramirez v. Collier that a convicted murderer was legally entitled to have his pastor pray in the death chamber and lay his hands on the person being executed. The bottom line—a fourth delay in punishment for a July 2004 killing during a robbery spree—is not as significant as the resources the Court and the legal system expended to vindicate the religious observance of a brutal killer in his final moments. The Supreme Court gave his case highly expedited treatment, granting him a stay of execution, speeding up briefing, spending a full hour hearing lawyers (including a representative of President Joe Biden ‘s Department of Justice ) present legal argument and issuing a 22-page opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, with 10 pages of concurring opinions by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Brett Kavanaugh and a 23-page dissent by Justice Clarence Thomas (who is a fervent supporter of religious liberty, but called the attempt to delay the execution an "abusive and insincere claim"). The final plea of a doomed man has […]
