Entries tagged with “Patrick Murphy (TX)”

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Sep 09, 2021

U.S. Supreme Court Stays Texas Execution, Agrees to Review Contours of the Right to Religious Exercise in the Execution Chamber

In an after-hours order issued on September 8, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court halt­ed Texas​’s planned exe­cu­tion of John Henry Ramirez and agreed to review his claim that the state’s refusal to allow his pas­tor to ​“lay hands” on him or pray audi­bly dur­ing the exe­cu­tion vio­lat­ed fed­er­al law and his First Amendment right to the free exercise of…

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Sep 07, 2021

Condemned Prisoner Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Stay His Execution Unless Texas Corrections Officials Permit His Religious Advisor to ​‘Lay on Hands’ While He is Being Put to Death

Texas death-row pris­on­er John Ramirez (pic­tured) is ask­ing the United States Supreme Court to stay his September 8, 2021 exe­cu­tion, argu­ing that the state’s refusal to allow his pas­tor to pray out loud with him and lay hands on him while he is being exe­cut­ed vio­lates fed­er­al law and his First Amendment right to free exercise of…

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Nov 11, 2019

Texas Prisoner Receives Second Stay of Execution Over Religious Discrimination Issue

A fed­er­al dis­trict court has grant­ed a stay of exe­cu­tion to a Buddhist death-row pris­on­er in Texas over alle­ga­tions that the state is dis­crim­i­na­to­ri­ly deny­ing him access to reli­gious ser­vices that would be avail­able to Christian pris­on­ers on the day of their exe­cu­tion. On November 7, 2019, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas stayed the November 13 exe­cu­tion of Patrick Murphy (pic­tured), mark­ing the sec­ond time in 2019 that his…

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Executions Overview

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May 15, 2019

Death-Penalty Opinions Expose Deep Divisions on U.S. Supreme Court

In the wake of sharp crit­i­cism of sev­er­al con­tro­ver­sial death-penal­ty deci­sions, the five con­ser­v­a­tive jus­tices of the U.S. Supreme Court issued three opin­ions on May 13, 2019, explain­ing their votes in those ear­li­er cas­es. The opin­ions, issued in con­nec­tion with the appar­ent­ly incon­sis­tent orders in reli­gious dis­crim­i­na­tion claims brought by two death-row pris­on­ers and a deci­sion declin­ing to review the case of an Alabama death-row pris­on­er who had chal­lenged the state’s…

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Apr 05, 2019

Commentators Question Why Supreme Court Stopped One Execution, But Not Another With Identical Religious Exercise Issues

Legal schol­ars and com­men­ta­tors across the polit­i­cal spec­trum have crit­i­cized the U.S. Supreme Court for its seem­ing­ly con­tra­dic­to­ry actions, less than two months apart, in two near­ly iden­ti­cal reli­gious free­dom claims from death-row pris­on­ers. On February 7, 2019, the Court vacat­ed a stay of exe­cu­tion and per­mit­ted Alabama to exe­cute death-row pris­on­er Domineque Ray (pic­tured, left), who had claimed that the Alabama Department of Corrections…