For now, U.S. Supreme Court justices are weighing legal options and future ramifications, but the court has a chance to clarify and safeguard religious accommodations for Texas prisoners facing death in the execution chamber.
The debate was animated recently as the justices listened to an attorney’s petitions on behalf of a prisoner seeking to have his pastor touch and audibly pray over him as the execution takes place. Certainly, there are several legitimate concerns, which were roundly aired during the proceedings.
Allowing this could open the door to subsequent appeals from prisoners seeking slight yet unarticulated accommodations for their own unique situation. “If we rule in your favor here, this is going to be a heavy part of our docket for years to come,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh told the prisoner’s attorney, as reported in the Texas Tribune.
Additionally, there is also the concern that future similar cases would be less about religious liberty and more about stalling an inmate’s long-scheduled execution. That would seem difficult to determine in some cases, although facing death often has been known to prompt sudden and intense religious interest. Chief Justice John Roberts said as much. “I suspect impending death focuses people’s concerns on religion in a way they may not have been before. Maybe he’s not sincere, but how do you tell?”
The case before the court concerns 37-year-old John Ramirez. The details of his arrival on death row are undisputed. He was convicted of stabbing a Corpus Christi store clerk multiple times in 2004 and arrested four years later. As his execution date was set this past summer, he asked that his pastor be allowed to lay hands on him and pray over him.
The state denied his request, citing security concerns, despite, as Ramirez’s attorney told the court, there not being a single incident of a spiritual adviser interrupting an execution. As a result, other scheduled executions in the state are on pause pending a decision.
For its part, the state has a less-than-stellar history of providing an even-handed approach when it comes to the federally protected religious liberty of prisoners. Currently, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which oversees executions, allows properly credentialed spiritual advisers to be present, but they are not allowed to touch the prisoner or speak, according to the Tribune’s account.
This is a difficult balancing act where security must be maintained while religious liberty is protected. Nevertheless, the security risk is low. Spiritual advisers understand they have a specific role and sacred responsibility. Their primary job is to bring comfort and minister to the person about to die and remind them God has not forgotten them.
As the Tribune reported, Alabama has recently updated guidelines for these situations, allowing spiritual advisers in the execution room, where they can anoint prisoners’ heads with oil, pray with them and hold their hands.
This seems a reasonable approach. What Texas needs is clarity around its policies, spelling out rules and accommodations that can be applied evenly across faith traditions for inmates seeking religious liberty as they face execution.
The Supreme Court justices have the opportunity to make that happen.
Amarillo Globe-News
