Photo: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP / Getty Images
WASHINGTON – The request of John Ramírez, a Latin inmate who wants a Baptist pastor to put his hands on his head and pray aloud when he receives the lethal injection, he wore this Tuesday before the Supreme Court the debate on the religious rights of those sentenced to the death penalty.
During a hearing, the nine judges of the Supreme Court, with a conservative majority, heard the arguments of the defense of Ramírez, whose execution was suspended on September 8 while his request is being studied, as well as those of the Department of Justice and the state of Texas.
The case has confronted those who defend the right of the convicted capital punishment to receive assistance according to their religious creed in its final moments and to those who consider these requests an attempt to re back the executions.
Ramírez, of 37, was sentenced to death in 2008 for stabbing Pablo Castro, a store worker in Corpus Christi, to who stole $ 1, 25 dollars, four years earlier.
Since then, Ramírez’s defense challenged the sentence and his execution was delayed on two occasions, one in 2012 and another in September 2020, the latter due to the pandemic Covid – 19.
The prisoner has requested the presence of his spiritual advisor, Dann Moore, pastor of the Second Baptist Church in Corpus Christi, who has visited him for more than four years in prison.
However , this order will oblige the highest court to decide whether to resp The religious rights of those sentenced to death are protected even in the face of the possibility of multiplying similar requests, which could delay or make executions more cumbersome.
Judge Clarence Thomas put the issue on the table, asking if Ramírez is “cheating the system” or if he is questioning “the sincerity of their religious beliefs. ”
But Ramírez’s request was not the only one. According to the publication Scotusblog, the judges have had to deal with other requirements of spiritual advisers during the last two years. Even last 21 October, another prisoner, Willie Smith III , was executed while his pastor, Robert Wiley, was at his side.
Witnesses to the execution, according to the publication, said they saw the pastor put his hand on Smith’s leg and apparently prayed for him .
And in Texas, several prisoners have followed Ramírez’s steps in recent weeks and they have requested to have their religious advisers present , which has caused their executions to be postponed, including that of the Latino Ramiro Gonzales .
In In the case of Ramírez, the state of Texas and two lower courts had rejected his request on the grounds that this fact could lead to the interruption of the execution and would pose a security risk.
The attorney general ral of the state of Texas, Judd Stone, indicated during his intervention that 1982 and 2019 that status allowed that the spiritual advisers touched and prayed aloud with the prisoner in the execution chamber, but clarified that these companions were employees of the prison system.
He even recognized that prisoners are allowed to pray aloud during their execution. However, he warned that accepting Ramírez’s request would expose him to a risk at the time of receiving the lethal injection.
“A small amount risk can lead to a situation that would create intolerable pain for an inmate ”, he argued.
Chief Justice John Roberts raised his concern and described the situation as “swampy ground.”
His colleague Samuel Alito agreed with that thesis, and wondered if after this lawsuit he will not have an “endless stream” of similar cases.
“What is going to happen when the next prisoner says they have the religious belief that they should touch my knee, they should hold my hand, they should put his hand on my heart, should they be able to put his hand on my head? ”, he wondered.
While Justice Brett Kavanaugh, what ien was one of the most incisive with his questions, expressed his concern that the condemned “move the goalposts”, alluding to a change in the rules of the game.
It was the magistrate of Latin origin Sonia Sotomayor, of progressive tendency, who pointed out that the State must address “the needs of each person.”
The defense, for its part, highlighted the sincerity of Ramírez’s religious beliefs, and indicated that in the last four decades 572 executions in Texas, and in some of them the presence of a spiritual adviser was authorized.
The Supreme Court could decide on this case anytime before the end of your current session, at the end of June 2022.