HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) 鈥� A Texas death row inmate won a reprieve Wednesday evening from execution for killing a convenience store worker during a 2004 robbery that garnered $1.25 after claiming the state was violating his religious freedom by not letting his pastor lay hands on him at the time of his lethal injection.
The U.S. Supreme Court blocked John Henry Ramirez鈥檚 execution about three hours after he could have been executed. He is condemned for fatally stabbing 46-year-old Pablo Castro, who worked at a Corpus Christi convenience store.
Ramirez was in a small holding cell a few feet from the Texas death chamber at the Huntsville Unit prison when he was told of the reprieve by Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark.
鈥淗e was quiet when I let him know,鈥� Clark said. 鈥淗e shook his head and said: 鈥楾hank you very much. God bless you.鈥欌��
In its brief order, the court directed its clerk to establish a briefing schedule so Ramirez's case could be argued in October or November.
Prosecutors say Ramirez stabbed Castro 29 times during a series of robberies in which the inmate and two women sought money following a three-day drug binge. Ramirez fled to Mexico but was arrested 3 1/2 years later.
Seth Kretzer, Ramirez鈥檚 lawyer, had argued the Texas Department of Criminal Justice was violating the death row inmate鈥檚 First Amendment rights to practice his religion by denying his request to have his pastor touch him and vocalize prayers when he was executed. He called the ban on vocal prayer a spiritual 鈥済ag order.鈥�
鈥淚t is hostile toward religion, denying religious exercise at the precise moment it is most needed: when someone is transitioning from this life to the next,鈥� Kretzer said in court documents.
Lower appeals courts had rejected Ramirez鈥檚 argument.
The request by Ramirez, 37, is the latest clash between death row inmates and prison officials in Texas and over the presence of spiritual advisers in the death chamber.
In recent years, the Supreme Court has granted stays halting several executions in Texas and Alabama over the presence of clergy or in the death chamber. The only execution stays the Supreme Court has granted in recent years have been related to issues of religious practice or discrimination.
In April, the Texas prison system a on allowing spiritual advisers in the death chamber. The ban came after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2019 of another Texas inmate who had argued his religious freedom was 小蓝视频 violated because his Buddhist spiritual adviser wasn鈥檛 allowed to accompany him. That inmate, Patrick Murphy, remains on death row.
Texas previously allowed state-employed clergy to accompany inmates into the chamber, but its prison staff included only Christian and Muslim clerics. The new policy allows an inmate鈥檚 approved spiritual adviser to be in the chamber but the two cannot have any contact and vocal prayers during the execution are not allowed.
Texas prison officials say direct contact poses a security risk and the vocal prayer could be disruptive and would go against maintaining an orderly process. Aside from some prison officials, an inmate鈥檚 final statement and a doctor who announces the time of death, no one else usually formally speaks during an execution.
Dana Moore, Ramirez鈥檚 spiritual adviser the last four years, said the request to let him touch Ramirez was about letting the inmate practice his Christian faith and treating him 鈥渨ith a certain amount of dignity.鈥�
Moore and Kretzer say the laying of hands is a symbolic act in which religious leaders put their hands on someone in order to offer comfort during prayer or confer a spiritual blessing at the moment of someone鈥檚 death.
鈥淛ohn鈥檚 sentence wasn鈥檛 death and you can鈥檛 have any meaningful contact,鈥� said Moore, who is pastor at Second Baptist Church in Corpus Christi. 鈥淗e is paying for his crime. I guess the question that would come up, is that not enough?鈥�
But Mark Skurka, the lead prosecutor at Ramirez鈥檚 2008 trial, said while he believes a death row inmate should have a spiritual adviser at the time of execution, there should be limitations based on security concerns.
鈥淧ablo Castro didn鈥檛 get to have somebody praying over him as this guy stabbed him 29 times. Pablo Castro didn鈥檛 get afforded such niceties and things like to have a clergyman present,鈥� said Skurka, now retired after later serving as Nueces County district attorney.
Castro, who had nine children, had worked at the convenience store for more than a decade when he was killed.
鈥淗e was a good guy. He would help people out in the neighborhood. Everybody liked him,鈥� Skurka said.
Two women who took part in the robberies and were convicted on lesser charges remain in prison.
Six more executions are scheduled for later this year in Texas, the nation鈥檚 busiest capital punishment state.
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Lozano reported from Houston.
Juan A. Lozano And Michael Graczyk, The Associated Press
