...Alabama...sigh...you've done it again

jthomas666

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clicky

Domineque Ray will soon be executed by the state of Alabama, and he wants his imam to be in the death chamber when he is killed. It’s not an absurd request: Alabama provides death row inmates with a Christian chaplain to pray with them just before they are given a lethal injection. But Ray is a devout Muslim, and he asked that a spiritual adviser of his own faith accompany him in the chamber. Alabama refused. The state insisted that Ray either accept the Christian chaplain or be killed alone. It scheduled his execution for Thursday evening.

On Wednesday afternoon, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked Alabama from killing Ray, ruling that the state’s refusal to let his imam attend the execution likely violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The court’s remarkable decision correctly accuses the state of engaging in flagrant religious discrimination, favoring Christianity over Islam and prioritizing a swift death over constitutional rights. It also potentially tees up a Supreme Court battle that will test the conservative majority’s ostensible commitment to religious freedom. If the Republican-appointed justices reverse the 11th Circuit, it will be hard to avoid the conclusion that their zeal for capital punishment outweighs their commitment to religious liberty.
 
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Tidewater

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Why can't the judges just play the "decent human being" card and let the condemned have the chaplain of his choice. This will undoubtedly end up costing the good people of Alabama a lot more money and resulting the condemned having the chaplain of his choice anyway.
 
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cbi1972

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Why can't the judges just play the "decent human being" card and let the condemned have the chaplain of his choice. This will undoubtedly end up costing the good people of Alabama a lot more money and resulting the condemned having the chaplain of his choice anyway.
Probably because they are elected by people who believe in a war on Christmas.
 

92tide

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Why can't the judges just play the "decent human being" card and let the condemned have the chaplain of his choice. This will undoubtedly end up costing the good people of Alabama a lot more money and resulting the condemned having the chaplain of his choice anyway.
it may be because they are not decent people
 
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TIDE-HSV

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Probably because they are elected by people who believe in a war on Christmas.
Yes, and letting a Muslim have his choice of spiritual leader in the hour of his death is proof positive of the war against Christmas. Give him a good southern Baptist, like all the other condemned. It's an obvious religious bias and it makes us look dumb as hell in front of the rest of the country. As usual...
 

Crimson1967

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They heard about what is going on in Virginia and wanted to let the country know we are still relevant in the idiotic racist game.

The guy isn’t trying to avoid execution. Let him have his Iman with him.


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92tide

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Yes, and letting a Muslim have his choice of spiritual leader in the hour of his death is proof positive of the war against Christmas. Give him a good southern Baptist, like all the other condemned. It's an obvious religious bias and it makes us look dumb as hell in front of the rest of the country. As usual...
sadly, i think there are some fairly significant chunks of the country outside of the south that are all in with this.
 

crimsonaudio

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Alabama looks ridiculous by excluding all other faiths in this, but the SCOTUS opinion has a point - dude waited until the last minute to request this. It's not as if the DP snuck up on him.

Regardless, I just SMH at government officials that ignore the First Amendment like this.
 

jthomas666

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Alabama looks ridiculous by excluding all other faiths in this, but the SCOTUS opinion has a point - dude waited until the last minute to request this. It's not as if the DP snuck up on him.
Regardless, I just SMH at government officials that ignore the First Amendment like this.
Hey, the guy was hoping that his other appeal would work. Only when it didn't did the reality of the situation kick in.

This tweet puts it better, I think:

https://twitter.com/abc/status/https://twitter.com/mjs_DC/status/1093731112734593024?s=19

 

NationalTitles18

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Alabama looks ridiculous by excluding all other faiths in this, but the SCOTUS opinion has a point - dude waited until the last minute to request this. It's not as if the DP snuck up on him.

Regardless, I just SMH at government officials that ignore the First Amendment like this.
I wonder when he was told his imam couldn't be with him.

Either way, the southern baptists got their way and a dying man did not have a spiritual advisor by his side when he died.

Maybe he didn't deserve it, but that didn't prevent christian murderers from having the same thing done for them.
 

MattinBama

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C'mon guys. At least they didn't inject him with pig's blood first and then sit around and laugh at him for a while before killing him. We're making progress.
 
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jthomas666

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I wonder when he was told his imam couldn't be with him.
from Kagan's dissent:

I also see no reason to reject the Eleventh Circuit’s finding that Ray brought his claim in a timely manner. The warden denied Ray’s request to have his imam by his side on January 23, 2019. And Ray filed his complaint five days later, on January 28. The State contends that Ray should have known to bring his claim earlier, when his execution date was set on November 6. But the relevant statute would not have placed Ray on notice that the prison would deny his request. To the contrary, that statute provides that both the chaplain of the prison and the inmate’s spiritual adviser of choice “may be present at an execution.” Ala. Code §15–18–83(a) (2018). It makes no distinction between persons who may be present within the execution chamber and those who may enter only theviewing room. And the prison refused to give Ray a copy of its own practices and procedures (which would have made that distinction clear). So there is no reason Ray should have known, prior to January 23, that his imam would be granted less access than the Christian chaplain to the execution chamber.
 

crimsonaudio

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Kagan nailed it - if the Imam was actually there (as in, getting him there wasn't prohibitive) then this is exactly as it appears to be on the surface and I hope it gets challenged in court.

These clowns are so short-sighted they don't understand that weaponizing their religion can come back to haunt them some day - particularly if there's a time when the majority of the people believe something differently than they do...

Alabama gonna Alabama, though - love the university, but the only thing keeping it from being the most backward state in the union is Mississippi.
 
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crimsonaudio

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C'mon guys. At least they didn't inject him with pig's blood first and then sit around and laugh at him for a while before killing him. We're making progress.
I get that's it's blue font, but I'll bet there were people thinking (or even joking about) that. possibly some employed by the prison or part of the very legal system that's supposed to protect him.
 

MattinBama

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I get that's it's blue font, but I'll bet there were people thinking (or even joking about) that. possibly some employed by the prison or part of the very legal system that's supposed to protect him.
It wouldn't surprise me at all.
 

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