On Thursday evening at 10:12 pm, Alabama executed death row inmate Domineque Ray by lethal injection, after the Supreme Court denied his request for his imam, a Muslim chaplain, to be present. Ray had argued that Alabama making only Christian chaplain’s available infringed his constitutional rights.

In an 11th-hour ruling, the court rejected a stay of execution with a pending a religious rights claim. Instead of being present with him, Ray’s imam, Yusef Maisonet, was placed in an adjoining chamber and saw Ray’s execution from there.

According to the Montgomery Advertiser, Ray said an Islamic declaration of faith before he passed.

Initially, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed Ray’s execution due to the possibility Alabama had “run afoul” of the religious freedom granted to all people. However, the Supreme Court made a 5-4 vote to reject the stay of execution, stating Ray had waited too long and would not meet the execution deadline if his request was granted.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall issued a statement saying, “For 20 years, Domineque Ray has successfully eluded execution for the barbaric murder of a 15-year-old Selma girl… Tonight, Ray’s long-delayed appointment with justice is finally met.”

Justice Elena Kagan was one of the judges who dissented, writing, “Here, Ray has put forward a powerful claim that his religious rights will be violated at the moment the State puts him to death. The Eleventh Circuit wanted to hear that claim in full. Instead, this Court short-circuits that ordinary process — and itself rejects the claim with little briefing and no argument — just so the State can meet its preferred execution date.”

Spencer Hahn, one of Ray’s attorneys, said in a statement, “Domineque was a devout Muslim and a human being. He was a son, a father, a brother. He wanted equal treatment in his last moments.”

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