US Supreme Court stays prisoner execution over spiritual adviser
Al Jazeera
Texas officials’ refusal to allow pastor to touch, pray over John Ramirez during execution violates rights, lawyer says.
A prisoner in Texas has been granted a last-minute stay of execution by the United States Supreme Court, after asking that his pastor be allowed to hold him as he is put to death by lethal injection. John Ramirez, 37, was scheduled to be executed on Wednesday evening for stabbing a convenience store clerk to death during a 2004 robbery, but his lawyer petitioned the supreme court to halt execution on the grounds that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) would not allow Baptist pastor Dana Moore to touch Ramirez as he is being executed or to pray aloud in the execution chamber. “The application for stay of execution of sentence of death … is granted,” the Supreme Court’s ruling said on Tuesday.More Related News