In 2008, John Henry Ramirez was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for the 2004 robbing, brutal stabbing and killing of 46-year-old Pablo Castro, a convenience store worker in Corpus Christi who was attacked while taking out the trash. Ramirez was scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on September 8, 2021. As part of his final rites, Ramirez asked that Dana Moore, the pastor of Second Baptist Church in Corpus Christi, not only be present in the death chamber but also be able to touch him and pray out loud for him at the moment of execution. Prison officials denied Ramirez’s request, citing security risks and a lack of decorum. Hours before Ramirez was scheduled to be executed, the U.S. Supreme Court stayed the execution, pending further review of his claims that government officials could have no compelling enough reason to deprive him of spiritual care in his final moments.
The Ramirez case follows in the wake of a string of cases across the country in which death row inmates of varying religious beliefs (Christian, Catholic, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu) have had their requests for spiritual care in the execution chamber accommodated or denied seemingly based on whether doing so would be convenient for prison officials. The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Ramirez v. Collier on November 9, 2021.
The amicus brief in Ramirez v. Collier is available at www.rutherford.org. Attorneys Thomas C. Berg of the University of St. Thomas School of Law’s Religious Liberty Appellate Clinic and Kimberlee Wood Colby of the Christian Legal Society advanced the arguments in the amicus brief for the coalition.
The Rutherford Institute, a nonprofit civil liberties organization, provides legal assistance at no charge to individuals whose constitutional rights have been threatened or violated and educates the public on a wide spectrum of issues affecting their freedoms.
Source: https://bit.ly/3nWSS8B
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