U.S.
District Judge Keith Watkins denied a stay requested by Dominique Ray, 42. Ray
is scheduled to be executed Feb. 7 for the 1995 fatal stabbing of 15-year-old
Tiffany Harville.
Ray
says his religious rights are being violated because Alabama has a Christian
prison chaplain present at lethal injections, but will not let him have an imam
in the room with him as the lethal drugs are administered.
Ray’s
lawyers argued that he has the same right to religious comfort in his final
moments as a Christian inmate.
Watkins
said for security reasons the state can limit death chamber access to prison
employees.
The
judge ordered the state to keep the prison chaplain out of the death chamber
during Ray’s execution. The state already said it was willing to do so.
Condemned
inmates in Alabama can visit with their spiritual adviser before their
execution and have the person witness the procedure through the glass window of
an adjoining room. However, only the prison chaplain and a correctional officer
are in the room with the inmate during the lethal injection procedure.
The
chaplain will sometimes kneel and pray with an inmate who is strapped to a
gurney.
Court
records indicate that Ray is appealing.
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