A Texas death row inmate is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday after winning a lengthy Supreme Court battle to have his pastor pray over him as the lethal injection is administered.
John Henry Ramirez, 38, was sentenced to death over the 2004 fatal stabbing of a 46-year-old convenience store clerk, Pablo Castro, during a drug-fueled string of robberies.
His execution date was postponed last year after Ramirez claimed his religious freedom was violated because state prison rules prohibited his pastor from touching and praying aloud during the procedure.
Ramirez’s case ended up clarifying the role of spiritual advisers in death chambers across the country after the US Supreme Court sided with the convicted murderer in March.
The court ruled that states must accommodate the wishes of death row inmates who want to see their religious leaders.
On Monday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles refused to commute Ramirez’s death sentence to a lesser penalty.
Ramirez has exhausted all possible appeals, and no final request to the Supreme Court is planned, according to his attorney, Seth Kretzer.
Ramirez was convicted of stabbing Castro 29 times during a robbery that cops said was the culmination of a three-day binge fueled by a combination of marijuana, pills, booze, and cocaine — a robbery that netted him only $1.25.
He fled to Mexico immediately after, but was apprehended three and a half years later.
While Kretzer expressed sympathy for the victim’s family, he said his client’s legal challenge was about protecting religious freedoms for all, noting that even Nazi war criminals were given ministers before their executions after WWII.
“That was not a reflection on some favor we were doing for the Nazis,” Kretzer said. “Providing religious administration at the time of death is a reflection of the relative moral strength of the captors.”
When Ramirez is giving his lethal injection, his spiritual adviser Dana Moore will also be able to hold a Bible in the death chamber, which previously hadn’t been allowed, Kretzer said.
source:nsemwokrom.com