An Alabama Death Row inmate set to die by lethal injection next week claims his execution should be stayed because the prison won’t let him have a Muslim spiritual adviser present in the execution chamber.

Domineque Ray, 42, is set to be executed at Holman Prison on Feb. 7 at 6 p.m. by lethal injection for the 1995 killing, rape, and robbery of 15-year-old Tiffany Harville. On Monday, Ray’s lawyers filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming Ray’s right to freedom of religion was being violated. They also asked for a stay of execution.

The lawsuit claims Ray, a Muslim, asked Holman’s Warden Cynthia Stewart last week that he be permitted to have a Muslim spiritual adviser—or imam—in the execution chamber instead of the prison’s longtime Christian chaplain. The warden denied his request and denied Ray’s second request to not have the chaplain present in the execution chamber at all, according to the lawsuit.

Ray made a third request to have no autopsy performed on his body because it conflicted with his religious beliefs, and Stewart said she “had no control” over that accommodation, the complaint says.

The same day Ray met with the warden, Ray also met with the prison chaplain. The Christian chaplain told Ray his requests "could not be honored due to ADOC policy,” the lawsuit says.

Ray claims in the suit he has not been allowed to see a copy of the policy that details chaplain presence or guidelines.

The lawsuit claims Ray’s First Amendment rights have been violated, along with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.

Tuesday, Ray’s lawyers also filed in federal court an emergency motion for a stay of execution, claiming Ray’s constitutional violations should halt the scheduled execution. “Alabama has made a policy decision… the chaplain is there solely for a religious purpose,” the motion says. “In other words, Mr. Ray’s freedom of religion lasts until he enters the execution chamber.”

Bob Horton, spokesperson for the ADOC, said the department follows protocol “regardless of the chaplain’s spiritual belief or that of the inmate.”

The ADOC allows inmates who are about to be executed to use the prison’s visitation area each day of the execution week to see friends, family, attorneys, and spiritual advisers, the lawsuit says. Per policy, the inmate must leave the visitation area at 4:30 p.m. on execution day and is only permitted to meet with his or her spiritual adviser before being taken to the execution chamber for the scheduled lethal injection at 6 p.m.

“Alabama law does not require the presence of the prison chaplain at an execution,” the lawsuit claims. “Once in the execution chamber, a death-sentenced inmate who wishes to have physical contact with a religious leader while making a final prayer may do so only with the prison chaplain.”

Ray’s imam will be allowed to witness the execution from a room adjacent to the chamber through two-way glass. “There is no compelling governmental interest in preventing a condemned inmate from having his or her spiritual adviser- who has been approved to have a contact visit… moments before the execution begins—from taking the place of the prison chaplain in the execution chamber,” the suit states. “When that spiritual adviser is otherwise available, in the moments before death, imposes a substantial burden on the free exercise of Mr. Ray’s religious beliefs.”

The Christian chaplain’s “mandatory presence” in the execution chamber serves an unconstitutional interest in “safeguarding the soul or spiritual health of the condemned inmate in the Christian (non-Catholic) belief system… [it] has the principle of primary effect of advancing Christian (non-Catholic) religion and inhibiting all other religions,” the lawsuit claims. The suit also says the chaplain policy creates an “excessive entanglement of government with religion.”

The lawsuit asks Ray to be allowed to have imam take the place of the prison chaplain during his execution and also to order the ADOC not require the presence of a chaplain in the chamber.

John Palombi and Spencer Hahn, assistant Federal Defenders, are representing Ray in the federal cases. Palombi said, “Mr. Ray’s suit goes to the heart of one of the most cherished of all rights, the right to freedom of religion. Neither Mr. Ray’s right to practice his religion nor his right to be free from having a different religion forced on him ends at the door to the execution chamber. We hope that the Commissioner will not force someone of a different religion on him and deny him the right to have his spiritual adviser with him at the moment of his death should that occur.”

Horton said the ADOC protocol “only allows approved correctional officials, that includes the prison’s chaplain, to be inside the chamber where executions are lawfully carried out. The inmate’s spiritual advisor may visit the inmate beforehand and witness the execution from a designated witness room that has a two-way window.”

Ray currently has a separate case pending in state court, where another team of lawyers have appealed to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. Ray’s is the first execution date set for 2019, and if carried out will be the first execution since Walter Leroy Moody’s execution in April.

Ray was also convicted of capital murder for the slayings of brothers Earnest Mabins and Reinard Mabins, and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He was convicted of that killing five months before the Harville trial in 1999.