Supreme Court halts execution of man challenging Texas’ ban on religious advisers

The Supreme Court halted the execution of a Texas man on Tuesday who has sued the state, saying its prison policy violates the First Amendment since it does not allow his priest in the execution chamber with him at his time of death.

For years, Texas allowed inmates to have a state-employed chaplain with them in the execution chamber but after Patrick Murphy, a Buddhist inmate, challenged the policy last year, the state changed its rule, to now not allowing any religious advisers in the execution chamber so that one religion is not favored over another.

But Ruben Gutierrez, a Catholic, successfully brought a legal challenge against Texas’ new policy in district court, which halted his execution. The 5th U.S. Court of Appeals, though, overturned the lower court ruling, and Gutierrez took his case to the Supreme Court, requesting a stay of his execution while the legal battle worked its way through the court.

Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. granted the stay on Tuesday, noting it is in effect until the high court decides whether or not to take the case challenging Texas’ policy.

For now, the First Amendment issue is going back to the lower court for further litigation.

“The District Court should promptly determine, based on whatever evidence the parties provide, whether serious security problems would result if a prisoner facing execution is permitted to choose the spiritual adviser the prisoner wishes to have in his immediate presence during the execution,” Justice Alito wrote in the high court’s order on Tuesday.

Lawyers for Gutierrez argued in court papers that having a religious adviser present at the time of death goes as far back as Biblical times, and had been safely done in Texas for years.

“In light of these religious and historical traditions, current Texas clergy have expressed alarm at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s (“TDCJ”) new policy,” the petition argued.

Gutierrez was convicted of killing a woman in 1999 after breaking into a Brownsville home to commit a robbery. According to local reports, he has been fighting for a DNA test for a decade, claiming he is innocent.