Supreme Court backs pastor prayer, touch in death chamber

A near unanimous Supreme Court said a death-row inmate’s spiritual adviser should be able to pray aloud and lay hands on an inmate at the moment of his execution.

A near unanimous Supreme Court on Thursday said a death-row inmate's spiritual adviser should be able to pray aloud and lay hands on an inmate at the moment of his execution, siding with a Texas man who had challenged a state ban on the practice.

Chief Justice John Roberts, in an opinion joined by seven other justices, wrote that there was not a compelling government interest in denying the religious exercises, noting their extensive history in American death chambers and the availability of less-restrictive steps to ensure security and decorum in that space.

The decision was a victory for John Henry Ramirez, a 37-year-old sentenced to death by lethal injection for the 2004 murder of a convenience store clerk and father of nine, Pablo Castro.

Ramirez, who does not contest his guilt or the sentence, wants his Baptist minister to be present inside the death chamber to pray out loud and lay a hand on his body at the moment he receives a lethal injection of phenobarbital.