A sec­ond Muslim death-row pris­on­er has filed a fed­er­al civ­il rights law­suit chal­leng­ing Alabama​’s pol­i­cy of allow­ing only a Protestant Christian chap­lain in the exe­cu­tion cham­ber. Charles Burton, Jr. (pic­tured), con­vert­ed to Islam 47 years ago. In a com­plaint filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, Burton, who was sen­tenced to death in 1992, argues that Alabama’s pol­i­cy vio­lates the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment and the reli­gious free­dom amend­ment of the Alabama state con­sti­tu­tion by deny­ing non-Christian pris­on­ers access to reli­gious advi­sors dur­ing exe­cu­tions in cir­cum­stances in which spir­i­tu­al assis­tance is made avail­able to Protestant Christian pris­on­ers. The Stanford Religious Liberty Clinic and the Alabama fed­er­al defend­ers office are rep­re­sent­ing Burton in his law­suit. ​“In prac­tice, inmates who share the chaplain’s faith may hold his hand and pray with him in their final moments, but that same com­fort and prayer is denied to those of oth­er denom­i­na­tions or faiths,” the clin­ic wrote in a press release announc­ing the suit. ​“This vio­lates basic prin­ci­ples of reli­gious equal­i­ty and human dig­ni­ty,” the clinic said.

Burton’s chal­lenge was filed after a 5 – 4 major­i­ty of the U.S. Supreme Court lift­ed a fed­er­al appeals court’s stay of exe­cu­tion and allowed Alabama to exe­cute Domineque Ray, anoth­er Muslim pris­on­er who had argued that the state’s refusal to accom­mo­date his request to per­mit an imam in the exe­cu­tion cham­ber was reli­gious­ly dis­crim­i­na­to­ry. Overturning the fact-find­ing of a fed­er­al appeals court, the Court assert­ed that Ray had filed his claim too late and there­fore was not enti­tled to a stay of exe­cu­tion. The deci­sion in Ray’s case drew sig­nif­i­cant crit­i­cism, and less than two months lat­er, the Court halt­ed the exe­cu­tion of Texas pris­on­er Patrick Murphy, who raised a strik­ing­ly sim­i­lar claim. Murphy, a Buddhist, chal­lenged Texas’ pol­i­cy of allow­ing only Christian or Muslim chap­lains, both employed by the Department of Criminal Justice, to be present dur­ing exe­cu­tions. Texas respond­ed to the rul­ing by bar­ring all reli­gious advi­sors from the exe­cu­tion cham­ber. To avoid any pos­si­bil­i­ty that Alabama could say he did not time­ly raise his chal­lenge, Burton filed suit before the state has set an exe­cu­tion date for him.

Burton’s fil­ing empha­sizes the impor­tance of reli­gious free­dom. Alabama’s actions, the suit alleges, ​“vio­late two of the most ele­men­tary prin­ci­ples of our con­sti­tu­tion­al democ­ra­cy, prin­ci­ples that the law requires to be hon­ored even in prison: to be able to prac­tice one’s reli­gion free from sub­stan­tial and unjus­ti­fied gov­ern­men­tal bur­dens and to be free from gov­ern­men­tal dis­crim­i­na­tion based on one’s reli­gion.” In an edi­to­r­i­al on April 11, 2019, the Wall Street Journal sup­port­ed Burton’s claim. ​“The death penal­ty ranks among America’s most divi­sive issues,” the edi­to­r­i­al board wrote. ​“But on one point we sus­pect advo­cates and detrac­tors agree: the right of a con­demned man to have a min­is­ter of his own faith inside the exe­cu­tion cham­ber at the hour of his death.”

(Kelsey Dallas, Religious free­dom on death row: How a new law­suit affects a grow­ing debate, Deseret News, April 8, 2019; Press Release, Stanford Religious Liberty Clinic Joins Legal Team in Death-Penalty Chaplaincy Case, Stanford Law School, April 4, 2019; Editorial, When a Prisoner Is Executed: Another Muslim death row inmate in Alabama pleads for an imam, Wall Street Journal, April 11, 2019.) Read the com­plaint in Burton v. Dunn. See Executions and Religion.

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