Domineque Ray, a Muslim death-row prisoner in Alabama, was denied a request to have his imam by his side before his execution. The case, which was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, is raising questions about religious liberty. "I was surprised because it deprived someone of sort of basic human dignity," Ray's attorney, Spencer Hahn of the Federal Defenders for the Middle District of Alabama, says of the decision. "I wasn't surprised in that we're dealing with the Alabama Department of Corrections." Hahn tells Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson that through his work on lethal injection cases, he has noticed that the Alabama Department of Correction refuses to disclose or deviate from its protocol. In this case, Ray was not allowed to have his imam by his side because he was not the official prison chaplain. "In terms of the religious leaders, their protocol appears to be that only the prison chaplain is allowed as far as spiritual advisers, and their position is that the prison chaplain happens to be a Christian," Hahn says. "He could be of any religious denomination. In this case, he happens to be a Christian, non-Catholic." Interview Highlights On if Ray was able to see his imam leading up to his execution "He was. In fact, his imam actually runs a Muslim worship group that is located on death row and meets with approximately 10 Muslim inmates at a time bimonthly, when they can get there. As far as seeing his imam, they are allowed spiritual visits, I believe, quarterly. Now in the lead up to an execution like this, he was allowed to see his imam daily the last four days of his life."

"In this case, it was surprising how many people said, 'I am in favor of the death penalty, but what this is doing is wrong.' " Spencer Hahn

On Ray's reaction to the Supreme Court ruling "He was shocked. We've had stays pulled back that the 11th Circuit has issued, but we've never had a stay that was so — what we would call the reasoning — and it was bulletproof, for lack of a better term. The 11th Circuit made all of the right findings and used all the right language, and it should have been a fairly straightforward denial of the attorney general's request. "And so in the hours leading up to the decision, we had been talking with Domineque, and I said, 'I can't guarantee anything, but we're 99 percent sure that the Supreme Court is not going to rule against.' And so when I had to pick up the phone a little after 8 o'clock and call the death cell, he knew as soon as he heard my voice. I just started crying as soon as I heard his voice. But he said he knew as soon as he heard my voice what that call meant. And all I could do was apologize to him, and he just was in disbelief. He couldn't believe that the Supreme Court of the United States would intervene to prevent him from having an imam present." On Attorney General Steve Marshall's statement that lauded Ray's execution "I want to clarify that we represented Mr. Ray in the end stage on his religious freedom angle. He has always maintained his innocence. I didn't represent him for very long, but I want it to be clear that Mr. Ray maintained his innocence. But with that in mind, I would note that I found Attorney General Marshall's statement to be ghoulish. It was essentially spiking the ball after denying a man the basic human dignity of having a spiritual adviser in his final moments. "I would note that normally I try to avoid reading the comments under articles online because I think it encourages trolls. But in this case, it was surprising how many people said, 'I am in favor of the death penalty, but what this is doing is wrong.' I was shocked at the outpouring of support across the spectrum from the [United States Conference of Catholic Bishops] to National Review, from The New York Times editorial page to the Socialists of America. They've all condemned this as contrary to who we are as people. And it's how we treat people who are marginalized and in some people's minds deserving of punishment. It's how we treat them that we're being judged by. And as I said in my comments to the media last week we are better than this."

"It's an issue that we have to raise. I mean, it goes to the core of who we are as people." Spencer Hahn