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Execution of Muslim inmate in Alabama blocked over concerns about his religious rights

Alabama may be violating the religious rights of Muslim inmate Dominique Ray by refusing to allow an imam at his execution, the 11th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals said Wednesday.

MONTGOMERY, Ala.— Alabama may be violating the religious rights of a Muslim inmate set for execution by refusing to allow an imam at his death, a federal court said Wednesday in blocking the lethal injection.

The 11th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals granted an indefinite stay for Dominique Ray, 42, a day before he was scheduled to die for the slaying of a teenager more than two decades ago.

Image: Dominique Ray
This undated photo from the Alabama Department of Corrections shows inmate Dominique Ray.Alabama Department of Corrections via AP

A three-judge panel of judges wrote that it was "exceedingly loath to substitute our judgment on prison procedures." But, they added that it "looks substantially likely to us that Alabama has run afoul of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment."

The state said it would appeal.

Alabama allows inmates to visit with their spiritual adviser before an execution, and they can have the adviser witness the execution from a room adjoining the execution chamber.

A Christian chaplain who works for the prison typically stays in the execution chamber, but Ray objected and asked for a Muslim cleric to be present.

The state agreed to remove the prison chaplain from the chamber but cited security reasons for why it would not allow an imam in the room.

The federal appeals court said the case merited review.

Ray was convicted in the fatal stabbing of a 15-year-old Tiffany Harville.

Harville disappeared from her Selma home in July 1995. Her decomposing body was found in a field a month later.