Essay: The death penalty says more about us than the condemned
US death row pastor JOE INGLE, in an article first published on Religion News Service, says the death penalty is a “barbaric practice no matter how you package it”…
Updated: Texas executes inmate who fought prayer, touch rules
Updated: 4:10pm (AEST)Houston, US AP A Texas death row inmate whose case redefined the role of spiritual advisers in death chambers nationwide was executed Wednesday, despite the efforts of a district attorney to stop his lethal injection. John Henry Ramirez, 38, was executed at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He was convicted of killing 46-year-old […]
Execution can’t proceed without religious requests – US judge
Houston, Texas, USAP A US federal judge has issued a temporary order telling Texas prison officials that they can carry out next week’s scheduled execution of a death row inmate only if they grant all of his religious accommodations, including allowing his spiritual adviser to hold his hand when he receives a lethal injection. Ramiro […]
US Supreme Court says states must allow prayer, touch in executions
Washington DCAP The US Supreme Court said Thursday that states must accommodate the wishes of death row inmates who want to have their pastors pray aloud and even touch them during their executions. The court ruled in the case of a Texas inmate, John Henry Ramirez, who challenged state rules that would have forced his pastor […]
Lifestory: Working at the “intersection of “faith and social justice”, Rev Cece Jones-Davis on the campaign that helped get Julius Jones off death row
ADELLE M BANKS, of Religion News Service, speaks with US minister Rev Cece Jones-Davis about her work in advocating for and supporting Julius Jones, a former death-row inmate whose sentenced was commuted to life last November…
Essay: A Catholic theologian argues for a death row inmate’s right to have the pastor’s touch in the execution chamber
DORIAN LLYWELYN, president of the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, argues, in an article first published on The Conversation, highlights in the importance of physical touch for those facing execution…
Texas executions delayed over religious rights claims
Houston, Texas, USAP The unresolved legal debate over whether spiritual advisers can touch inmates and pray aloud as condemned individuals are being put to death has delayed the final two executions scheduled this year in Texas. The delays come as the US Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments next month in the case of another Texas […]
Florida death row chaplain given Guardian of Life Award from Pontifical Academy
RNS Dale Recinella, a Catholic lay chaplain working on Florida’s death row, was awarded the first-ever Guardian of Life Award from the Pontifical Academy of Life on Tuesday. Recinella, the first-ever recipient of the new award, accepted the honour at the academy’s general assembly in Rome. For more than two decades, Recinella had been offering […]
Another Texas execution delayed on religious freedom claims
Houston, Texas, USAP Another Texas inmate has had his execution delayed over claims the state is violating his religious freedom by not letting his spiritual adviser lay hands on him at the time of his lethal injection. Ruben Gutierrez was set to be executed on 27th October for fatally stabbing an 85-year-old Brownsville woman in […]
US faith leaders backing Oklahoma death row inmate hail parole board’s commutation request
RNS In a decision hailed by religious leaders who have taken up his cause, an Oklahoma parole board voted to recommend commutation of the death sentence of Julius Jones, who has been on death row for two decades. Rev Cece Jones-Davis, the Justice for Julius campaign director, said she viewed the recommendation Monday of “life […]