Birmingham, AL – A Muslim man was executed in Alabama on Thursday, as originally scheduled, after the U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 to allow the execution, denying his request for an imam’s presence in the execution chamber.
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Attorneys for Domineque Ray, 42, had argued that Alabama’s execution policy favored Christian inmates because a chaplain is allowed in the room, often kneeling next to the death row prisoner, and praying with the inmate if requested.
Ray was executed by lethal injection at 10:12 p.m., a spokesman of the Department of Corrections told Reuters in an email. No other information was immediately available.
Ray’s imam, Yusef Maisonet, watched the execution from an adjoining witness room, multiple media reports said, including the Birmingham News.
Ray’s execution was to have been temporarily delayed because he asked his imam to replace the chaplain in the death chamber.
On Wednesday, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to stay the planned execution to weigh Ray’s arguments, but the state of Alabama quickly appealed that decision to the Supreme Court, which overturned the Circuit Court.
Ray was sentenced to death in 1999 for the killing of Tiffany Harville, 15, who disappeared from her Selma, Alabama home in July 1995.
good riddance
Am I missing something here? The imam is in the next room and they have to ask the Supreme Court if he can enter the death chamber that’s less than 30 seconds away?
I am all for EQUAL religious rights for EVERYBODY. That’s the ONLY way to ensure religious rights for Jews.
20 years of my tax dollars going to feed this piece of drek who should’ve been killed right when the investigation finished
they should have had compassion on this poor fellow and let the Iman in to hold his hand as he was being electrocuted…..