Summary
U. S. Supreme Court review of a Texas murderer’s lawsuit that claims the state is violating his rights by refusing to allow a minister to touch him and pray aloud in the execution chamber while he receives a lethal injection. Ramirez was convicted of the 2004 stabbing murder of a man and the robbery of a woman at knifepoint.
At issue is what limits there are to last-minute litigation over religious accommodations for condemned murderers. CJLF argues that there should be limits, and the Court should settle on what they should be. The Foundation also notes that raising this type of claim at the last minute after decades of review on direct appeal and habeas corpus is an abuse of the legal process. The Foundation's brief argues that the Court should apply it’s 1971 decision in Younger v. Harris to limit civil lawsuits in criminal cases to “unusual circumstances.” The absence of clergy holding hands with a murderer does not meet this standard.
The Court held that Ramirez was likely to prevail on his claim and sent the case back to the lower courts without expressly discussing the limits noted in CJLF's brief. The opinion did note that last-minute litigation could be avoided if states had clearer procedures for deciding these kinds of claims. CJLF will continue to argue for limits on federal court intervention in cases where the state decision process is more clearly defined.
