The gang member escaped prisoners «Texas 7» was given a reprieve from execution for participating in the murder of officer once said, his religious freedom will be violated if his Buddhist spiritual mentor will not allow you to be in death row.
The execution of 57-year-old Patrick Murphy was blocked by the U.S. Supreme court.
Attorneys Murphy previously stated that the attempts by Texas prison officials to prevent the spiritual mentor to be in the chamber of death violate the First amendment to freedom of religion.
Murphy became a Buddhist nearly ten years ago while in custody. The lower courts rejected the arguments of Murphy.
«Religious discrimination violates the Constitution, said the Supreme court judge Brett Cavanaugh. — The government cannot discriminate against religion generally or particular religious faiths.»
According to Cavanaugh, TX will not be able to execute Murphy, if you don’t let spiritual mentor to be with him during the execution.
Breaking: #SCOTUS has stopped the execution of Patrick Murphy, which was set for tonight based on TDCJ»s decision to not allow a Buddhist priest into the execution chamber. #deathpenalty pic.twitter.com/3BiG0Fn5v3
— Jolie McCullough (@jsmccullou) March 29, 2019
According to the representative of the Department of criminal justice Texas Jeremy Desela, the state will consider the court’s decision to decide what to do.
«I knew we needed to grasp at straws,» he said, smiling, Murphy, leaving the cells where prisoners awaiting execution.
Patrick Murphy was among prisoners who escaped from a prison in South Texas in December 2000, and then committed several robberies. During one of them they shot 29-year-old police officer of the town of Irving — Aubrey Hawkins. A policeman had just finished a Christmas family dinner, when I received the message about the robbery at the sporting goods store. In Hawkins was shot 11 times.
Attorneys Murphy also asked the Texas court of appeals in criminal cases to overturn the penalty, arguing that capital punishment is unconstitutional because Murphy was not involved in the shooting, but only stood «on guard» during the robbery.
The escaped prisoners were arrested a month later in Colorado, one of them committed suicide, the other six were convicted of murder and sentenced Hawkins to death. Murphy would be the fifth executed. The sixth prisoner, Randy Halprin, still no date for the execution.
Note that in February the Supreme court rejected the request of a Muslim inmate in Alabama to his Islamic spiritual adviser present in the death chamber.
