SCOTUS stays Texas execution because condemned was denied Buddhist spiritual advisor in execution chamber
As reported in this local article, "hours after he was to be executed for his role in a notorious 19-year-old crime, Texas death row prisoner Patrick Murphy won a rare stay from the U.S. Supreme Court based on his request to have a Buddhist spiritual adviser next to him in the death chamber." Here is more:
The condemned man, one of the last surviving members of the so-called 'Texas 7' crew of prison escapees, lobbed a long-shot bid for reprieve earlier this week when his attorneys raised religious discrimination claims, arguing that the converted Buddhist couldn't make it to the Pure Land for rebirth without a spiritual adviser present as he prepared to die.
But the regular prison chaplain is a Christian and, in light of that, the Texas prison system's refusal to accommodate Murphy's request could be a constitutional violation. "As this Court has repeatedly held, governmental discrimination against religion — in particular, discrimination against religious persons, religious organizations, and religious speech— violates the Constitution," Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote.
"The choice of remedy going forward is up to the State. What the State may not do, in my view, is allow Christian or Muslim inmates but not Buddhist inmates to have a religious adviser of their religion in the execution room."
Two justices — Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch — dissented, while Murphy's legal team celebrated the rare win.
"We are pleased the Supreme Court acknowledged both that Mr. Murphy, as a Buddhist, is entitled to be accompanied in the execution chamber during the execution by a minister of his own faith just as a Christian would be," Houston-based attorneys David Dow and Jeff Newberry said in a statement late Thursday.
But the late-breaking decision doesn't mean that Murphy can't be executed — it just means that he gets more time to argue his appeal, unless the Texas prison system instead chooses to resolve the issue by changing their protocols to allow Buddhists the same execution chamber religious rights as Christians.
Prison spokesman Jeremy Desel said the Texas Department of Criminal Justice legal team will "be reviewing the ruling" to figure out "what, if any, impact it will have."
The Supreme Court's ruling is available at this link, and here is the official statement from the Court:
The application for a stay of execution of sentence of death presented to JUSTICE ALITO and by him referred to the Court is granted. The State may not carry out Murphy’s execution pending the timely filing and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari unless the State permits Murphy’s Buddhist spiritual advisor or another Buddhist reverend of the State’s choosing to accompany Murphy in the execution chamber during the execution.
Justice Kavanaugh decided to write a few paragraphs to explain his vote, and here is are a few sentences therefrom:
In this case, the relevant Texas policy allows a Christian or Muslim inmate to have a state-employed Christian or Muslim religious adviser present either in the execution room or in the adjacent viewing room. But inmates of other religious denominations — for example, Buddhist inmates such as Murphy — who want their religious adviser to be present can have the religious adviser present only in the viewing room and not in the execution room itself for their executions. In my view, the Constitution prohibits such denominational discrimination.
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