Court ruled that inmate Patrick Murphy’s religious freedom would be violated if his Buddhist adviser were excluded

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Texas prisons will no longer allow clergy in the capital punishment death chamber after the US supreme court blocked the scheduled execution of a man who argued his religious freedom would be violated if his Buddhist spiritual adviser could not accompany him.

Effective immediately, the Texas department of criminal justice will only permit prison security staff into the execution chamber, a spokesman said late on Wednesday. The policy change comes in response to the court’s ruling staying the execution of Patrick Murphy, a member of the “Texas Seven” gang of escaped prisoners.

Texas previously allowed state-employed clergy to accompany inmates into the room where they would be executed, but its prison staff included only Christian and Muslim clerics.

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In light of this policy, the supreme court ruled on Thursday that Texas could not move forward with Murphy’s punishment unless his Buddhist adviser or another Buddhist reverend of the state’s choosing accompanied him.

One of Murphy’s lawyers, David Dow, said the policy change does not address their full legal argument and mistakes the main thrust of the court’s decision.

“Their arbitrary and, at least for now, hostile response to all religion reveals a real need for close judicial oversight of the execution protocol,” Dow said.

Murphy’s attorneys told the high court that executing him without his spiritual adviser in the room would violate the first amendment right to freedom of religion. The 57-year-old – who was among a group of inmates who escaped from a Texas prison in 2000 and then committed numerous robberies, including one in which a police officer was fatally shot – became a Buddhist while in prison nearly a decade ago.

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In his concurring opinion, the court’s newest justice, Brett Kavanaugh, wrote that Texas had two options: allow all inmates to have a religious adviser of their religion in the execution room, or allow religious advisers only in the viewing room, not the execution room.

“The government may not discriminate against religion generally or against particular religious denominations,” Kavanaugh wrote.

Kristin Houlé, executive director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, called the new policy “cruel and unusual” and urged the department to reconsider.

Prison chaplains will still be able to observe executions from a witness room and meet with inmates on death row beforehand, said a Texas department of criminal justice spokesman, Jeremy Desel. He declined to elaborate on the reasoning behind the policy change.

The change brings Texas in line with most other death penalty states, which do not allow clergy into the execution chamber, according to Robert Dunham, a lawyer and executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. But it is also likely to open new legal fights for America’s busiest execution state, he said.