The U.S. Supreme Court grappled with the religious rights of death-row inmates in the execution chamber, as the justices weighed a request by a Texas prisoner to have his Baptist pastor pray aloud and place his hands on the man during the lethal injection.
Hearing arguments in Washington, the justices suggested they might kick at least part of the case back to a lower court to balance inmate John Henry Ramirez’s religious needs with the security interests of the Texas prison where he will be executed.
Death-row inmates don’t normally fare well at the conservative-dominated Supreme Court. But the results have been more mixed as religious rights in the death chamber has emerged as an issue in recent years, with some conservatives at times joining with the three Democratic appointees to back inmates.
