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Court blocks Alabama from executing Muslim inmate without his imam present
ABC "News" ^ | February 7, 2019 | by MORGAN WINSOR

Posted on 02/07/2019 11:49:22 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer

A federal appeals court on Wednesday blocked the execution of a Muslim inmate in Alabama after the state refused to allow his imam to be at his death instead of a Christian prison chaplain.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit granted an emergency stay of execution for 42-year-old Domineque Ray one day before he was scheduled to be put to death for the rape and murder of 15-year-old Tiffany Harville more than two decades ago in Selma, Alabama.

Ray has been held at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama, since he was convicted and sentenced to death in 1999. He has been a devout Muslim since at least 2006 and has been meeting with his current imam who has provided religious ministry to Muslim inmates like Ray since 2015, according to court documents.

The three-judge panel wrote in their decision that it was "exceedingly loath to substitute our judgment on prison procedures," but that "it looks substantially likely to us that Alabama has run afoul of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment."

"What is central to Establishment Clause jurisprudence is the fundamental principle that at a minimum neither the states nor the federal government may pass laws or adopt policies that aid one religion or prefer one religion over another," the judges wrote. "And that, it appears to us, is what the Alabama Department of Corrections has done here."

(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; US: Alabama
KEYWORDS: alabama; deathpenalty; dominequeray; imam; islam; muslim; old; sparky
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Muslim filth like this must be sent to the deepest caverns of Hell. Send his Imam along too.


21 posted on 02/07/2019 12:14:29 PM PST by Bullish (My tagline ran off with another man.)
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To: Trump20162020

Plus he’s been in prison since 1999. Isn’t justice delayed justice denied? He should have been offed last century.


22 posted on 02/07/2019 12:15:49 PM PST by sparklite2 (Don't mind me. I'm just a contrarian.)
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To: sparklite2

In this case, it really helps to read the article.


23 posted on 02/07/2019 12:16:25 PM PST by treetopsandroofs
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

give him what he wants. It won’t change his destiny.


24 posted on 02/07/2019 12:17:27 PM PST by Dont tread and Live (waso)
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To: Trump20162020

See Post #23.

I’ll bet Alabama is busy re-writing policy now.


25 posted on 02/07/2019 12:17:58 PM PST by treetopsandroofs
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

I’m most sickened by the fact that he’s been on death row since 1999. Nice to know we’ve paid his room and board for 20 years.


26 posted on 02/07/2019 12:19:25 PM PST by Restless
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To: treetopsandroofs

I reread it. What am I missing?


27 posted on 02/07/2019 12:22:03 PM PST by sparklite2 (Don't mind me. I'm just a contrarian.)
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To: sparklite2

Personal spiritual advisors are allowed in the observers room, including the imam. Only the official prison chaplain, a Christian, is allowed in the execution chamber. Now, the imam will be inside the chamber. Betcha the muzzies have some kind of demonstration planned.


28 posted on 02/07/2019 12:23:33 PM PST by colorado tanker
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
Tiffany Harville was murdered in July of 1995, twenty-three and a half years ago. She was raped and then murdered by two men, Dominique Ray and Marcus Owden, as she screamed for help and begged them to stop. After they finished raping her, they slit her throat and robbed her of her purse, which contained $6.

He would not have been connected with the Tiffany Harville rape were it not for the testimony of Owden, who decided to fess up about the crime in 1997.

Owden and Ray had killed two teenaged boys, Reinhard and Ernest Mabins, several months before they raped and murdered Tiffany Harville. They did this because they "wanted to start their own gangs" and needed to kill someone in order to join their own gang. At the time he murdered Tiffany, Ray was 18 years old.

Ray was said to have an IQ of 80, and both he and Owden are claimed by the attorneys to be either schizophrenic or to suffer from schizotypal disorder.

29 posted on 02/07/2019 12:25:33 PM PST by Steely Tom ([Seth Rich] == [the Democrat's John Dean])
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To: colorado tanker

If I had my way, executions would be public again. For justice to work, it must be seen to work. Doing the deed behind closed doors diminishes its deterrent effect.

But if we’re too squeamish to witness what the state is doing in our name, maybe we shouldn’t be doing it. And we damned sure shouldn’t put if off for twenty years.


30 posted on 02/07/2019 12:28:27 PM PST by sparklite2 (Don't mind me. I'm just a contrarian.)
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To: Trump20162020

I agree that Alabama looks silly here. This is the kind of sh!t that turns voters in this country against politicians who see government as an arm of their religious institutions.


31 posted on 02/07/2019 12:29:00 PM PST by Alberta's Child ("In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey.")
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To: Leaning Right

Here’s the FReeper solution. Get any good ol’ FReeper, such as Lazamataz, have him wrap his head in a towel and wear some kind of robe and present himself to the guy as an Imam. Presto, you got your Imam, now on to the juice!


32 posted on 02/07/2019 12:31:00 PM PST by JewishRighter
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To: sparklite2; plain talk

My apologies. You are correct. I had to re-read it. :-)

Post #9 is wrong.


33 posted on 02/07/2019 12:33:56 PM PST by treetopsandroofs
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To: Steely Tom

Why is his 80 IQ relevant? What is the norm for his racial group?


34 posted on 02/07/2019 12:47:49 PM PST by Myrddin
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To: MplsSteve

Imams may be in short supply here - unlike NJ where I was a home owner. It’s rare to see a muzzie here.


35 posted on 02/07/2019 12:50:00 PM PST by miss marmelstein
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To: colorado tanker

After the execution has been completed with the requested imam in the chamber, then look for CAIR or ACLU to sue the state, the warden, and the prison system, for going against their own written policies on the matter.

It appears to be a set-up that will not end well.


36 posted on 02/07/2019 12:50:17 PM PST by NEMDF
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To: Myrddin
Why is his 80 IQ relevant? What is the norm for his racial group?

It was thrown out as a fact by the attorneys handling his death sentence appeal.

The SCOTUS has ruled that capital punishment cannot be administered to individuals suffering from "mental retardation." I think an IQ of 80 is right on the borderline.

37 posted on 02/07/2019 1:00:50 PM PST by Steely Tom ([Seth Rich] == [the Democrat's John Dean])
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To: Leaning Right
Sheesh. Alabama was just plain stupid here. If the guy wants an imam, get him an imam.

Or at least get him a Rabbi that identifies as an Imam.

38 posted on 02/07/2019 1:03:06 PM PST by Mr Ramsbotham ("God is a spirit, and man His means of walking on the earth.")
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To: Restless
Nice to know we’ve paid his room and board for 20 years.

Look at it this way: instead of getting either the death penalty or life imprisonment, he got both.

39 posted on 02/07/2019 1:06:23 PM PST by Mr Ramsbotham ("God is a spirit, and man His means of walking on the earth.")
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Oh for God’s sake, what was the prison thinking? Let him have whoever he wants in the room and then go ahead and execute him.


40 posted on 02/07/2019 1:06:51 PM PST by DoodleDawg
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